July 09--It's a behemoth among fuel tankers: 813 feet long, 131 feet wide and weighing 62,201 gross-registered tons just for the ship itself, without counting the fuel inside.
When the Ellie Lady visited Port Everglades last weekend, it ranked as the largest tanker ever at the Broward County seaport.
The tanker carried about 8.2 million gallons of jet fuel to the port to be used at the four international airports in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, West Palm Beach and Fort Myers.
"It was tricky to bring in this ship, because it was so big and heavy that it had to come in at high tide," said Ellen Kennedy, a spokeswoman for the port.
The tanker came in around 8 a.m. Sunday, unloaded fuel destined for the port through a hose to storage tanks, and then departed Monday morning, Kennedy said.
Port Everglades serves as the fuel import hub for South Florida. Besides handling jet fuel for the four international airports, it provides gas for 12 counties, plus ethanol, diesel, bio-diesel and other fuels.
Last fiscal year, the port handled 105.4 million barrels of petroleum-related products, with each barrel made up of 42 gallons. That volume is down about 3 percent from the year before, thanks partly to improved fuel efficiency in cars and other machinery, port officials said.
In jet fuel alone, the port handled 26.5 million barrels -- or more than 1.1 billion gallons -- during the fiscal year. That fuel is delivered from the port either by underground pipeline or trucked to area airports, officials said.
The tanker is not the biggest ship ever to call at Port Everglades.
Among cruise ships, Royal Caribbean International's giants Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas are far larger: each 1,187 feet long, 184 feet wide and 220,000 gross-registered tons.
Among containerized cargo ships, the MSC Texas also is heftier: 1,095 feet long, 141 feet wide and 90,745-gross-registered tons, a measure that does not count the weight of freight onboard.
Even bigger tankers and freighters that go deep into the sea ships are expected to call in the years to come, after Port Everglades dredges its channel.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently gave its backing to a $313 million plan to deepen the port to 48 feet to accommodate mega-ships expected to pass through an expanded Panama Canal. The port now is seeking required approvals and funding to complete the expansion project.
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