Lightering
Lightering involves discharging cargoes from large ships into smaller vessels that are more suited to enter the destination port. VLCCs bringing crude oil from West Africa and the Middle East to the US Gulf are discharged (or lightered) into our own aframax vessels which then serve a range of local refineries. Lightering is a highly skilled activity and AET employs around 100 people and a fleet of dedicated workboats at Galveston, Texas to ensure the highest quality of service for our customers. Uniquely, AET also maintains the largest aframax fleet in the US Gulf region (around 30 vessels) to ensure the flexibility required to meet our customers’ demands.
With a continuing focus on quality, we are currently investing in a new fleet of workboats and enhancing our shoreside support facilities in Galveston. At AET we are proud to command the largest share of the US Gulf lightering market and to enjoy the best on-time performance of any US Gulf operator.
In 2010 we took the pioneering step of commissioning the design of the world’s first dedicated lightering support vessel (LSV) to support our substantial ship-to-shore business in the US Gulf by providing new tonnage tailored specifically for safety and crew comfort. The first vessel will be delivered in October 2011.