Ultrasonic Gauging of Tankers, Bulk Carriers and Feeders at Fredericia on the Little Belt

Inspection services for ships at Fredericia

Each service has its own page with the method, the class requirements and what the report contains.

Where a ship can be gauged in and around Fredericia

Fredericia is not a docking port: ships calling here are gauged afloat at their working berth, and dockings are taken elsewhere. At the oil jetties the terminal's safety rules come first. Ultrasonic gauging involves no hot work, but the equipment brought aboard, entry into enclosed spaces and any movement on deck near the manifold are agreed with the terminal and the ship before the team boards. The bulk and breakbulk quays give the freest access, and a ship waiting there for cargo can often be gauged over a day or more. At the container terminal, deck, hatch coaming and lashing-bridge structure and the ballast tanks are reached between crane moves, following the terminal planner's sequence and stopping whenever a crane works over the area.

For a dry docking, ships trading to Fredericia are usually sent to the larger repair yards in Denmark or across the Baltic. Fayard at Lindø, on Odense Fjord, is the nearest yard with big dry docks, and Ørskov Yard at Frederikshavn takes short-sea ships; yards in Poland, Lithuania and Germany are frequent choices too. Gauging the ballast tanks and deck during a Fredericia call a few weeks before the docking lets the superintendent send the yard a steel estimate rather than a guess, and leaves the dock period for the shell, bottom and sea chests that can only be reached with the hull dry.

• Crude oil export jetty beside the refinery — ballast tank, forepeak and deck gauging on crude tankers during loading, under the terminal's rules.
• Product tanker berths — deck plating, cargo lines on deck and segregated ballast tanks on tankers lifting refinery output.
• Container terminal — feeder ballast tanks, hatch coamings and deck structure measured between crane moves.
• Bulk and breakbulk quays — hold frames and tank tops on bulk carriers, and deck and tween-deck structure on general cargo ships.
• Waiting berths in the harbour — longer pre-purchase or condition gauging on ships idle between charters or cargoes.
• Fayard dry docks at Lindø, Odense Fjord — shell, bottom and sea chest gauging when a Fredericia trader goes on to dock.

Port state control, North Sea crude and vetting at Fredericia

The Danish Maritime Authority carries out port state control in Fredericia under the Paris MoU, and tankers are among the ship types its inspectors see most often here. Older tankers on short Baltic trades tend to fall into the higher-risk profiles, and a deficiency involving wasted structure, holed air pipes or corroded deck piping can hold a ship until it is measured and repaired or a plan is agreed with class. Oil company vetting runs in parallel: a tanker loading crude or products at the port will normally have been inspected under the OCIMF SIRE programme, and hull condition records, including recent thickness readings, are part of what a vetting inspector or charterer may ask to see.

The energy transition is visible on Fredericia's waterfront too, with plans announced for green fuel production alongside the existing refinery business. EU climate rules now reach shipping directly, through the EU ETS from 2024 and FuelEU Maritime from 2025, and for owners of older tankers and bulk carriers trading to Danish ports they add weight to the choice between another five years of trading, a sale or recycling. Current thickness data is part of making that choice well. Under the EU Ship Recycling Regulation, ships flying an EU flag and other ships of 500 GT and above calling at EU ports must also carry an Inventory of Hazardous Materials, which port state control officers check.

Ships trading to Fredericia are inside a sulphur emission control area, where fuel must not exceed 0.10% sulphur unless an exhaust gas cleaning system (scrubber) is fitted. Scrubber wash-water piping, the overboard discharge and the hull penetration around it are among the fastest-corroding parts of a modern ship, so they belong in the gauging scope at every docking and, on open-loop systems, between dockings.

How a thickness measurement job runs at Fredericia

Most of the work on a Fredericia job happens before the team boards: scope, plan and access are settled first, so the time on board goes on measurement.

Billund Airport is the closest international airport to Fredericia, and Copenhagen Airport, with frequent intercity trains across Funen to Fredericia station, is the other common route in. The oil terminal and the container and bulk quays are ISPS-controlled, and the oil jetty adds its own safety induction, so the ship's agent sends the team's names and passport details to the terminal ahead of the call. Denmark is in the Schengen area and the team travels from India on Schengen visas, which need applying for well before the ship's expected arrival.

• Send the vessel name or IMO number, ship type, class society, the survey due (annual, intermediate, renewal survey number, CAP or owner's condition survey), the port and dates, and the scope you expect.
• We confirm the scope against the class rules for that survey, prepare the thickness measurement plan with frame and section references, and say whether the measurement will be credited to a class survey.
• Mobilisation is planned around visa lead times and the vessel's schedule; the ship's agent arranges port access, and the yard or ship arranges staging, lighting, ventilation and gas-free certificates.
• Gauging with calibrated ultrasonic thickness gauges: through sound coatings only where the gauge's through-coating mode has been verified on a coated reference, otherwise on cleaned bare steel, with every reading tied to its frame, strake and location on the sketch.
• Readings are compared with original thicknesses as work proceeds; substantial and excessive corrosion and any cracks are reported to the attending surveyor and the superintendent the same day.
• The final report is issued on the class thickness-measurement formats with sketches, a summary of locations exceeding the allowable margins, piping tables where piping was in scope, and the gauge calibration and technician certificates.

Related