Maritime Terms, Abbreviations and Acronyms

Maritime abbreviations and acronyms go back to those days we used telegram and telex to communicate. The business model for telex and telegrams was “pay per letter”. Even though the telegrams and telexes have been retired, we still use the maritime abbreviations daily.

Below you will find a comprehensive list of terms, abbreviations, and acronyms used in the maritime industry, sorted in alphabetical order. You can search for an acronym or write a word and find the abbreviations where the word is included.

If you think some abbreviations are missing, send us an e-mail at post@maritimeoptima.com or open the chat icon on the bottom of this page.

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FT

Foot or Feet

FT

Full Terms

FTA

Free Trade Agreement or Freight Transport Association

FTC

Free Transferable Currency

FTD

Fitted

FTRR&I

For their respective rights and interests

FTTM

First thing tomorrow morning

Fuel

A material used to produce heat or power by burning.

Fuel blending

Mingling two or more materials, refinery streams ordinarily, to make a mixture that meets a grade of fuel's legal and commercial requirements. Refineries almost always sell finished products made from more than one component. Modern motor gasoline, for all practical purposes, must comprise several blendstocks. No single material can meet all its various specifications. Kerosene and gasoline do not require blending the way mogas does. But refinery economics and the number of processes which yield middle distillate fractions make combinations quite probable. Heavy fuel oil usually includes several streams in order to concoct a saleable material from the dregs of assorted units.

Fuel oxygenate

Oxygenates are compounds containing oxygen in a chain of carbon and hydrogen atoms. Today, oxygenates are blended into gasoline in two forms: alcohols or ethers. Ethanol is the most commonly used alcohol oxygenate; methyl-tertiary-butyl-ether, or MTBE, is the most commonly used ether oxygenate. Fuel oxygenates are used in gasoline to boost the octane rating and to decrease the toxic emissions in the exhaust.

Full and Down

An expression to describe a loaded vessel carrying cargoes of such a volume and weight that it fills all the vessel’s spaces and also brings her down to her tonnage loadline. A rare but optimum revenue condition for a vessel operator.

Full Containerships

Ships equipped with permanent container cells, with little or no space for other types of cargo.

Full Cycle Washing

Crude oil washing in which the complete cargo tank is washed.

Full Shipload Lot

The amount of cargo a vessel carries or is able to carry. Practically, it is the amount of cargo which induces the specific voyage. While the cargo lot may take up the majority of the vessel’s space or ton- nage capacity, it does not require a vessel’s volume and weight capacity to be fully utilized.

Full-Range Naphtha

see WHOLE NAPHTHA

Fully Hydrogenated

The terms describing a fat or oil which has been hydrogenated to the extent that the resultant product is solid at room temperature. Products containing hydrogenated fats include heavy duty frying fats for restaurant use, solid shortenings and solid margarines.

Fully Refined Oil

The term used to describe an oil which has been subjected to extensive processing methods to remove - (1) free fatty acids and other gross impurities (refine); (2) naturally occurring colour bodies such as chlorophyll (bleach), and (3) volatile trace components which may affect colour, flavour and odour (deodorise).

Fungible

Marketable product. Typically refers to petroleum products moved by pipeline. As long as a particular grade of gasoline meets Colonial pipeline specifications, for instance, it may travel and trade as fungible product. A fungible batch in the Colonial system consists of 25,000 barrels or more of material from various suppliers, all of which meets the specifications published by the Pipeline company.

Furnace oil

A term ordinarily reserved for the kind of gasoil used for household heating. The quality of this product can vary from place to place. The USA, for instance, uses a lighter distillate for this purpose than do some European countries.

Futures

A type of contract established to pay today for something that will be delivered at a fixed future date.

FV

Fishing vessel

FW

Fresh water

Fr.wa

Fresh water

FWA

Fresh water allowance

FWAD

Fresh Water Arrival Draft