An Ore-bulk-oil carrier, also known as combination carrier or OBO, is a ship

Ship

Since the end of the age of sail a ship has been any large buoyant marine vessel. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size and cargo or passenger capacity. Ships are used on lakes, seas, and rivers for a variety of activities, such as the transport of people or goods, fishing,...

 designed to be capable of carrying wet or dry cargo

Cargo

Cargo is goods or produce transported, generally for commercial gain, by ship, aircraft, train, van or truck. In modern times, containers are used in most intermodal long-haul cargo transport.-Marine:...

es. The idea is to reduce the number of empty (ballast

Sailing ballast

Ballast is used in sailboats to provide moment to resist the lateral forces on the sail. Insufficiently ballasted boats will tend to tip, or heel, excessively in high winds. Too much heel may result in the boat capsizing. If a sailing vessel should need to voyage without cargo then ballast of...

) voyages, in which large ships only carry a cargo one way and return empty for another. These are a feature of the larger bulk trades (e.g. crude oil from the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

, iron ore and coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

 from Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 and Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

).

The Russian word for 'ore-bulk-oil carrier', nefterudovoz (нефтерудовоз, literally 'oil/ore carrier'), in combination with a number, is often used as a proper name for a ship, e.g. Nefterudovoz-51M.

History

The idea of the OBO was that it would function as a tanker when the tanker markets were good and a bulk / ore carrier when these markets were good. It would also be able to take "wet" cargo (oil) one way and "dry" cargo (bulk cargoes / ore) the other way, thus reducing the time it had to sail in ballast (i.e. empty).

The first OBO carrier was the Naess Norseman, built at A. G. Weser for the company Norness Shipping, controlled by the Norwegian shipowner Erling Dekke Næss

Erling Dekke Næss

Erling Dekke Næss, was a Norwegian shipowner and businessman. Brother of philosopher Arne Dekke Næss, his nephew was the mountaineer and businessman Arne Næss Jr.. Best known for his early adoption of flags of convenience, Næss was Deputy Head of Nortraship's New York office from 1942 to 1946....

.

Næss was instrumental in conceiving the new type of vessel, together with his chief naval architect T. M. Karlsen. The Naess Norseman was delivered in November 1965, the vessels data was as follows: Length 250 meter, beam 31,6 meter, draft 13,5 meter, 37,965 gross tonnes.

The OBO carrier quickly became popular among shipowners around the world and as of today several hundreds of this type of vessel have been built. The ship type had its glory days in the early 1970s. In the 1980s, it became clear that the type required more maintenance than other vessels. Also, it was expensive to "switch" from wet to dry cargoes, and it took valuable time. If you had carried oil, you could switch to carrying ore or other dirty bulk cargoes, but not grain or other clean bulk cargoes. As the 1970s-built OBO vessels become older, most of them were used either as pure tankers or as pure ore carriers.

In the 1990s, a smaller number of OBOs from to were built for the account of Danish and Norwegian shipowners.

Today

OBO-carriers are today not as common as they were in the 70-80's. This due to some serious accidents in the 1980's. However, some ship-owner still prefer the OBO-concept and its trading flexibility. SKS Tankers is today operating the largest OBO-fleet in the world, this consisting of 12 OBO carriers. The latest obo-vessel in the fleet,SKS Mersey, was delivered in 2003 from Hyundai Heavy Industries. The design of these vessels have significantly been improved compared to the vessels made in the seventies, and all problems which was related to the OBO-concept have been dealt with.

A fleet of smaller, "river-sized" (several thousand tonnes) ore-bulk-oil carriers have also been used for some decades on European Russia's waterways, primarily by Volgotanker

Volgotanker

Volgotanker is a Russian company engaged in the business of transporting oil and oil products by tanker ship along the inland waterways and coastal seas of European Russia. It is headquartered in Samara.- History :- Soviet period :...

.

Accidents

In addition to MV Berge Istra

MS Berge Istra

The MS Berge Istra was a ship owned by Norwegian shipping company Sig. Bergesen d.y. and registered in Liberia, an ore-bulk-oil carrier with...

 and MV Berge Vanga

MS Berge Vanga

The MS Berge Vanga was an ore-bulk-oil carrier with . The ship was owned by Norwegian shipping company Sig. Bergesen d.y. and registered in Liberia...

,
one of the more famous OBOs was the Derbyshire MV Derbyshire

MV Derbyshire

The MV Derbyshire was an ore-bulk-oil combination carrier built in 1976 by Swan Hunter, as the last in the series of the Bridge-class sextet. She was registered at Liverpool and owned by Bibby Line....

 of 180,000 deadweight tonnes

Deadweight tonnage

Deadweight tonnage is a measure of how much weight a ship is carrying or can safely carry. It is the sum of the weights of cargo, fuel, fresh water, ballast water, provisions, passengers, and crew...

, which in September 1980 became the largest British ship ever lost at sea. It sank in a Pacific typhoon while carrying a cargo of iron ore from Sept-Îles

Sept-Îles, Quebec

For the islands in north of Brittany, see JentilezSept-Îles is a city in the Côte-Nord region of eastern Quebec, Canada. It is the northernmost town in Quebec with any significant population...

 in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 to Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.