Liquid Cargo Carriers

Liquid Cargo Carriers

These are divided into 3 parts

1. Tankers: (SOLAS Ch. 1, Part A, Reg 2 “definitions” define A tanker is a cargo ship constructed or adapted for the carriage in bulk of liquid cargoes of an inflammable nature. Try to keep this Inflammable and Tanker linkage in mind for future references.

2. Pressurized and Liquefied Gas Carriers/Tankers : Gases are carried in them.

3. General liquid carriers: consisting of Orange juice, edible oil, Chemicals and Wine carriers

Above ships differ a lot when it comes to safety requirements. All of them are double hull ships.

Tankers: Vary a lot in sizes and capacities as per cargoes. They have sub categories

Crude oil Tankers: Generally big ships reaching up to 500,000 t deadweight capacity. Crude tankers are specifically used to transport crude oil from the excavation site to the crude oil refining industrial plant. They have sort of fixed routes and are chartered by oil companies for long term.

Due to their requirement of water depth, they usually use special off-shore facilities away for ports. Many are referred as ULCC or VLCC. They have Crude Oil Washing (COW) system and Inert gas system. They have 12-18 tanks with heating arrangements.

Petroleum Product Tankers: These ships are between 1000 t to 80,000 t capacities. They have more pipe lines to isolate products and more tanks. Tanks may vary between 12 to 30. Usually chartered by Oil companies for long term but routes are as per supply and demand. They carry almost all types of petroleum products and may have heating coils in tanks for specific cargoes.

What Captain DOGO is saying?

GAS Carriers Tankers: Gas carrier ships are especially designed ocean-going vessels that are dedicated for transporting all types of liquefied natural gases (LNG) and liquefied petroleum gases (LPG) to their destinations. These ships are inbuilt with tankers of plain surface, spherical or cylindrical shape to carry the gas. Capacity of a gas carriers depends on the trade for which it was constructed and ranges from 3,500 –1, 50,000 m3.

Natural gases, according to their physical and chemical properties, are normally carried in liquid state thus gas carrier ships can be classified under below mentioned categories:-

1. Fully Pressurized

2. Semi-pressurized and refrigerated

3. Fully refrigerated

LNG Tankers: The LNG carriers are those tanker ships that are used to cargo LNG or Liquefied Natural Gas. These types of tankers require careful and delicate handling owing to the precariousness of the material they carry. Statistically speaking, there are around 200 LNG tankers that are currently under operation.

Captain DOGO Sir! What are LNG Tankers?


LPG Tankers: They are very similar to tankers. The general arrangement of an LPG ship is almost same as that of an oil carrier, with the cargo tanks spread over a certain length forward and abaft the midship, the machinery and superstructure at the aft.

Petroleum hydrocarbon products such as Propane and Butane, and mixtures of both have been categorised by the oil industry as LPG. It is widely used in domestic and industrial purposes today. The most important property of LPG is that it is suitable for being pressurised into liquid form and transported.

Cadet DOZO! What is LPG tanker?

Miscellaneous gas carriers: These carry chemical gases like Ammonia and others. They have different requirements for construction and safety.

General liquid carriers: They carry cargoes like Orange juice, Edible oil, Wine, Water, Chemicals etc. Their basic design is almost like Tankers minus specific safety requirements. Tanks are made up of Inert metals like Food grade Stainless Steel.

Orange Juice Carrier: They have arrangements for temperature control of the cargo. Cargo is maintained at just above 00 C. Normally owned by the Fruit companies and on fixed seasonal routes.

Edible Oil Carrier: They have arrangement to heat cargo to maintain temperature. Sizes vary between 2000 t to 60000 t. No fixed routes.

Wine Carrier: They have arrangement to maintain exact temperatures of the cargo. Normally small ships owned by the wine companies. They have fixed seasonal routes.

Water Carrier: They are basically used to transport Potable drinking water. These are small ships used to supply water to many islands.

Chemical Carrier: They are basically used to transport various chemicals. These are small ships who carry industrial supplies. Chemicals may be hazardous needing special care during carriage. They temperature control arrangements for cargo. Normally owned by specialist chemical companies like STOLT.


Sorry but have not heard of Beer Carriers. Normally Beers, Alcohol like Whiskey, Rum, Vodka etc is carried in Tank containers each having capacity of 20,000 Lts.