Delos already on the job
New tanker slips into Australia

Delos, the replacement for fleet oiler HMAS Westralia, alongside the wharf in Sydney’s Botany Bay. Photo: Roger Lowe, Teekay Shipping Australia.

By Graham Davis

The new 37,000 tonne oil tanker Delos, purchased by Defence for $50 million a few weeks ago to replace HMAS Westralia, is now in Australian waters and already on the job.

Our image shows the Delos in Botany Bay earlier this month.

She has a 17-member Australian civilian crew led by Captain John Pickett.

Teekay Shipping Australia, the company which tracked down 11 vessels for the ADF to consider, gathered Captain Pickett’s team and arranged for it to collect Delos from her builders, the Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Company in Korea.

Captain Pickett brought Delos, flying the Australian Merchant flag, into Brisbane where she took on a variety of petroleum products from Caltex and BP under a charter arrangement.

She then travelled down the east coast of Australia delivering the product to the Caltex refinery terminal at Kurnell in Sydney.

It will be charter deliveries such as this which will be the tanker’s lot for the next nine months or so.

During this time Captain Pickett will test the ship and iron out any problems.

The time span will also allow contractors seeking to transform the ship into a Royal Australian Navy oiler to go onboard and assess what needs to be done and what equipment will be required.

Up to $100 million will be outlayed transforming the tanker from a civilian vessel to a warship.
She will then be commissioned and renamed.

The Defence Minister, Senator Robert Hill announced the purchase of the Delos on June 3.

“It will be modified so that it has the latest technology and equipment capable of refuelling a range of Navy vessels including the Anzac and guided missile frigates and the new Air Warfare Destroyers that will enter service from 2013,” Senator Hill said.

Following her arrival, separate competitive contracts will be let for the design and the modification of the ship.

Tenders for the design and logistics support package will be issued shortly, with the preferred designer to be contracted later this year.

Tenders for a repairer-builder to modify Delos will be issued in early 2005 with a preferred tenderer to be selected mid-year.

Defence is on track to deliver the ship into service in 2006.

Within hours of Delos reaching Kurnell she was visited by some high level RAN officers including RADM Trevor Ruting
and CDRE Keith Malpress and members of the project team who had acquired her on behalf of the Commonwealth.

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