Port Canaveral, Florida – Saturday 12th October 2024 received an urgent request for 95,000 litres of AUS40 in bulk for two cruise ships in Port Canaveral for delivery on Sunday 13th October 2024 and Monday 14th October 2024 as the contracted supplier was unable to supply.
Background:
On October 5th 2024 the Florida Governor declared a state of emergency for the approaching Category 5 hurricane Milton. Upon receipt of this and in view of the forecast track, the local team initiated an emergency risk mitigation process to protect the Florida AUS40 blending facility and all associated personnel including the filling of all available storage tanks, evacuating non-essential personnel, protecting the trucks and securing all loose items ahead of a controlled shutdown.
On the 8th October 2024 a large number of destructive tornadoes developed across Florida ahead of Hurricane Milton coming ashore in Sarasota County on the night of 9th October 2024 close to the blending facility. There was extensive damage and flooding in the area.
Minimising Operational Impact
Whilst the immediate response was to support the local relief effort in the aftermath of hurricane, a multi-discipline team was dispatched to the plant to assess the integrity of the systems and identify the damage. It was soon recognised that the precautionary measures identified and executed in the blending plant emergency risk mitigation process had protected both the personnel and the equipment to the extent that with some minor repairs and verification tests the plant could be operational within 24 hours.
Assuring AUS40 Supplies
Whilst the initial focus on the 11th October was on testing the existing AUS40 in storage to assure the quality was still within ISO 18611 standard and available to resume immediate deliveries, it quickly changed to ensure the blending equipment and systems were fully functional to support planned deliveries for the week ahead. The team worked tirelessly to get the plant fully functional and operational by Saturday 12th October.
Urgent Request
On Saturday 12th October 2024 Fluechem received an urgent request for 5 full tanker truckloads of AUS40 to be delivered in bulk to two cruise ships in Port Canaveral on Sunday 13th October 2024 and Monday 14th October 2024 – less than 24 hours’ notice.
Complex Delivery Success
The delivery windows at the ports were extremely constrained due to the cruise ships being delayed at sea by the impact of hurricane Milton to the extent that there was only two hours available at one vessel to transfer 4 full truckloads (~76,000L or ~20000 US Gallons) of AUS40 – an operation which would typically take more than 3 hours.
Despite having a full backlog schedule of deliveries, the team managed to allocate the relevant number of tanker trucks and worked with the vessels and port authorities to optimise the arrival and clearance of the trucks and agree a system to piggyback the 4 trucks tail to tail alongside the vessel to minimise connection / disconnection operations within the environmental and operational risk assessment parameters.
The delivery to both vessels was completed safely and efficiently as planned within the operational windows – a great team effort.
Security of Supply
One of Fluechem’s Unique Selling Points which underpin all deliveries is “Security of Supply” – being able to guarantee supply from secured resources, even when the market is constrained.
Fluechem and its partners have a variety of contingency plans in place to offset unforeseen challenges around manufacturing and transport logistics, such as the impact of hurricane Milton, to ensure we stand by our commitments to our customers. We pride ourselves in being able to deliver bespoke solutions to our customers when others cannot.
