On May 14, ASESA’s installations in the Port of Tarragona admitted one of the largest boats of its history. The Leni P oil tanker, with a length of 274.39 metres and a beam of 48.03 metres and with a load capacity of 158,000 tons, is one of the largest operations that ASESA’s dock has had since it began functioning.
The oil tanker unloaded 24,800 tons of crude oil that served to supply raw material to ASESA’s plant for the manufacturing of bitumen and other derivatives.
The tanker was partially unloaded previously in another port, since the draught in the ASESA dock had been insufficient for it to berth fully loaded. The large dimensions of the Leni P covered the maximum dimensions of the ships that can be handled by the installations of the Port of Tarragona, formed by a dock with three berthing places, among them, a P-100 platform with four loading arms and an operating draught of 14 metres..
Since its establishment in Tarragona in 1965, ASESA is a world leader in the production of bitumen. At this time, the company exports 80% of its production to the rest of Europe, to northern and western Africa and to the United States, mainly.
ASESA produces one million tons annually of bitumen. The figure represents nearly 50% of the Spanish market, and more than 5% of the European production.
The company is making investments in the amount of 30 million euros, laid out in its Strategic Plan 2016-2020, with the objective of renovating, improving and having new installations in the Tarragona plant.
The characteristics of the Leni P (length of 274.39 m, beam of 48.03 m, maximum draught of 17.02 metres, and GT -gross tonnage- of 81,509 tons) makes it one of the largest ships that has berthed at the ASESA dock. However, despite dealing with an exceptional operation, it is not the only case, since in recent years there have been similar operations.
In 2019 the RS Aurora berthed at the ASESA dock with a GT over that of the Mexican ship, but with a shorter length, 20,274.20 m. And in 2018, two other ships with similar characteristics unloaded, in particular the Athens Spirit, but with a slightly lower GT than that of the Leni P, in this case, of 81,326 tons.