Double hulled oil tanker owned by Cal-Petro Bahamas*, considered part of
Chevron's
fleet. Built in
1993 in
Brazil by Ishikawajima do Brasil Estaleiros S.A. ("Ishibras"), it sails under a
Bahamian flag. Its deadweight is 129,915 tons. The ship is 258.9 meters long, 48.3 meters in the
beam, with a 16.790
meter
draft. In its early years, the ship sailed the Atlantic, carrying Mexican
crude to
Chevron's U.S.
Gulf refinery in
Pascagoula, Mississippi and West African crude to Chevron's
Philadelphia
refinery. Now it can often be seen from I-580, moored in
Point Richmond,
California, just south of the
Richmond-San Rafael Bridge in the
San Francisco Bay.
Chevron has commented: "It's part of a long-standing practice of naming (tankers) after members of the board of directors." Other big Chevron ships are named George Shultz, Carla Hills, David Packard and Kenneth T. Derr. Rice served on Chevron's board of directors from 1991 until she joined the Bush cabinet in January 2001.
In April 2001, Chevron quietly renamed the ship "Altair Voyager."
*Cal Petro Bahamas is a company with no assets, no shareholders, no reason to exist, really, except to own a ship in the Bahamas. Chevron Transport has an exclusive charter with Cal Petro to maintain, staff, sail, and otherwise operate the ship. Conveniently, they're also the broker that holds the mortgage that Cal Petro had to take out to build the ship in the first place.
Sources:
Ship and ownership info: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/923649/0000950130-95-000632.txt
Carla Marinucci, "Chevron redubs ship named for Bush aide
Condoleezza Rice drew too much attention," San Francisco Chronicle, May 5, 2001. <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2001/05/05/MN223743.DTL> (Accessed November 29, 2005)