Thickness Gauging for Tankers and Cargo Ships at Sillamäe

Inspection services for ships at Sillamäe

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

Gauging sites at the Sillamäe terminals

Tankers at the oil-product berths are gauged under the terminal's and the ship's permit systems. During loading, the team measures deck plating, the outside of cargo, ballast, heating and vent lines, and the ballast tanks the crew has certified safe. Heated cargoes such as heavy fuel oil and shale oil create condensation and corrosion around heating coils and along tank bottoms, so cargo-tank internals and coils are measured when the tanks are cleaned and gas-free, either at the end of a period on the trade or at the yard. Chemical tankers at the fertiliser and chemical terminals follow the same split between work during cargo operations and work after cleaning.

General cargo and bulk ships at the multipurpose terminal are gauged hold by hold as the cargo allows. We do not plan dockings at Sillamäe; ships calling here dock at Tallinn Shipyard on the Kopli peninsula, at yards in Finland or further afield, and gauging during a Sillamäe loading can give that yard a steel list in advance. Ships waiting at anchor off the port for a berth can be reached by launch through the agent if the weather and the terminal programme allow.

• Oil-product terminal berths — tankers loading shale oil, heavy fuel oil and vacuum gas oil; deck, piping and ballast-tank gauging during loading
• Liquid fertiliser terminal — chemical tankers; deck, pipework and ballast spaces measured inside the terminal's safety regime
• Liquid chemicals terminal — chemical tankers with coated or stainless tanks; external piping and deck gauging, tank internals when gas-free
• Multipurpose cargo terminal — general cargo, bulk, project and ro-ro ships; hold and tank gauging during cargo operations
• Anchorage off Sillamäe — ships waiting for a berth; launch access through the agent in suitable weather

Inspection, scrutiny and the tanker trade from Sillamäe

Port state control at Sillamäe is the responsibility of the Estonian Transport Administration under the Paris MoU. Tankers and chemical tankers are among the higher-risk ship types in the regime's targeting, and since 2022 the Gulf of Finland has seen tighter scrutiny of tankers, as the Baltic states pay closer attention to the condition, documentation and insurance of older tankers trading in the region. A tanker loading at Sillamäe is therefore better placed with a recent, well-documented condition record, including the gauging behind its last survey. Charterers and terminal operators also vet ships before accepting them, and heavy wastage on deck lines is a common reason for a poor vetting.

The cargoes themselves set the gauging priorities. Heavy fuel oil and shale oil are carried heated, and repeated heating and cooling, together with water settling out of the cargo, drive corrosion on tank bottoms, coil supports and lower stiffeners. Liquid fertilisers and some chemicals are aggressive to steel wherever coatings fail. Ships that trade into Sillamäe from outside the EU carry an Inventory of Hazardous Materials under the EU Ship Recycling Regulation, and tankers sailing between EU ports have their emissions counted under the EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime.

Ships trading to Sillamäe 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 Sillamäe

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

The team flies into Tallinn Airport and drives east through Ida-Viru County to Sillamäe. Estonia is a Schengen state, so our technicians from India travel on Schengen visas, applied for as early as the loading date allows. The ship's agent arranges port access with the port and the terminal operator concerned, and the tanker and chemical terminals require their own safety induction before anyone goes on deck. Where a second ship is due at Muuga or Tallinn in the same week, both jobs can share one trip.

• 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.

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