Sea vehicles
Let’s learn about large tankers
We will introduce one of the largest tankers in the ships, called VLCC.
Tankers are basically used to transport oil. Tankers can be also used to transport liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). There are even Chemical Tankers to transport chemicals. Among the tankers, one of the largest tankers is called supertanker, and it transports large amount of crude oil. (VLCC: this tanker can transport 200,000 tons or more of oil.)
VLCC
VLCC (Oil tanker)
 
Tran
Photograph supplied courtesy of The Japanese Shipowners’ Association
Can you imagine how big VLCC is?
VLCC is so big that one VLCC can bring 1/3 of all the oil used in Japan per day. It has many pipes running across the deck and crude oil can be loaded and unloaded from the ship through the piped.
VLCC is more than 300 meters in length, and people use bicycles to get around on the ship.
Deck of a VLCC
Deck of a VLCC
 
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Photograph supplied courtesy of The Japanese Shipowners’ Association