Marine Transportation Selection & Vetting
Operating our facilities in a safe, reliable, and environmentally sound manner includes obtaining raw materials and delivering our products in a disciplined, consistent and predictable manner. An integral part of Sunoco’s management system addresses all waterborne shipments and operations, from the Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) to the smallest barge.
All vessels are third-party owned, so Sunoco has a very strict pre-clearance (vetting) system. This vetting process ensure that only the very safest vessels and highest quality operations and owners are selected to transport our oil.
The vetting process is driven by widely recognized risk-based criteria intended to minimize the probability of an incident. Numerous factors are considered in the process and criteria that vessels and vessel owners must meet include:
- Use of intrinsic spill safeguards, including double hulls;
- Age, quality, maintenance history, and overall condition of each individual vessel;
- Competence and experience of the officers and crew of the vessel;
- Demonstrated commitment of the vessel owners to incident-free operations;
- Operating history of the vessel; and
- Rigorous onboard inspections.
Various industry sources are utilized to ensure the most up to date data are used during the vetting process.
Approximately half of the crude oil deliveries to our refineries are covered by tankers under long-term, multi-year contracts with six ship owners. The average age of this time charter fleet is less than 5 years old. Sunoco’s waterborne product transportation is achieved through the utilization of a modern, 25-unit tug barge fleet. The multi-year time-chartered fleet of double hull, U.S. flag barges cover 75 percent of Sunoco’s total waterborne product requirements, with the balance of transportation achieved by contract with first class marine service providers.
