Maritime Terms, Abbreviations and Acronyms

Soyabean oil is obtained by solvent extraction of the soyabean. The oil content of the bean is about 18%, but the residue is a valuable high protein feed meal and represents about 60% of the sale value of the crop.

Safe Port

An abbreviation of specific gravity.

Subject to Particular Average. See also Particular Average.

A voyage charterparty under which the space charterer has the right to use only part of the vessel's capacity.

Skaw - Passero range

St. PetersBurg

Speed or Ship Pays Dues

Speed and Consumption

The specific gravity of a substance is the ratio of the mass of a given volume of the substance to the mass of an equal volume of water at a specific temperature. In the AOCS Methods Cc 10a-25 for oils and liquid fats (Cc 10b-25 for solid fats), the ratio is measured at 25°C.

An expression of materials' density in terms of their relationship to a reference substance. Water at 4 C serves as the reference for hydrocarbons, both liquid and solid. Water has specific gravity of 1.0, as 1 cc of its weighs 1 gram. The specific gravity of liquid hydrocarbons indicates the ratio of their density in ccgram to water's. For example, motor gasoline typically has a density around 8.5 barrel per metric ton, or 0.740cc per gram. That makes its specific gravity (0.740 ccgram mogas)(1.0 ccgram water) = 0.740. Full expression of specific gravity requires specification of a temperature for both the described and the reference substances. Therefore, a complete citation of a motor gasoline sample's specific gravity might read 0.740 @ 60 F39.2 F. The formula found under API gravity can convert specific gravity to API degrees.

Society of Plastics Industry (USA)

Injection of one stream into another for later recovery. Transportation of some condensates, for instance, takes place by spiking them into crude oil cargoes.

An articulated five–platform railcar. Used where height and weight restrictions limit the use of stack cars. It holds five 40–foot containers or combinations of 40– and 20–foot containers.

Saturday P.M. or Single Point Mooring

SPM Operating & Maintenance Guidelines

Spain

Singapore

A type of arrangement when a charterer fixes a vessel for a single laden voyage from one or more load ports to one or more discharge ports. The owner receives freight either on a dollar per ton basis or on a lump sum basis.

Arrangement for a ship to carry a certain cargo on a particular route. Such deals, sometimes called voyage charters, usually cover a single trip. Commitments for two or more consecutive voyages do happen, though, occasionally. In a spot charter, the shipowner pays fuel and port charges. This assignment of costs distinguishes spot business from time-charters. When a charterer takes a vessel for a period rather than a voyage, he pays bunkers and port charges.

An isolated sale. In transactions of this kind, a specific quantity of oil, usually a convenient unit like a cargo, a bargeload, or a pipeline batch, changes from seller's hands to buyer's. The notion once assumed promptness. That element has vanished now that companies trade spot oil many months forward. In today's vernacular, “spot” chiefly distinguishes self –contained transactions from period business, sometimes called deals or contract deals.

Spot vessel means vessels contracted for a single voyage and not included in a COA.

Placing a container where required to be loaded or unloaded.

A piece of equipment designed to lift containers by their corner castings.

Spot

Safety and Quality Assessment System

the tendency of a ship to draw more water astern than when stationary, this amounts to less available underkeel clearance

Soviet Register

Stabilizer Room (OCIMF acronym)

Signing and Releasing Bill of Lading

Slops Receiving Station

Single Rope Maximum Loading

Spill Response Team

Suez Laden, Suez Ballast

Shipside or Self-Sustained or Screw Steamer or Stainless Steel

A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels. The term steamboat is usually used to refer to smaller steam-powered boats working on lakes and rivers, particularly riverboats; steamship generally refers to larger steam-powered ships, usually ocean-going, capable of carrying a (ship's) boat. The term steam wheeler is archaic and rarely used.

Ship Security Assessment

Single Side Band

Surface Supplied Breathing Apparatus

Scientific Support Coordinator

saybolt seconds, Furol. The unit of Saybolt Furol viscosity, a method of determining liquids resistance to flow. An alternate acronym, SFS, for Saybolt Furol seconds, remains in use.

Saturdays, Sundays and holidays included

Ship Security Officer

Ship Security Plan

Ship/Shore Safety Checklist for Safe Transport, Handling and Storage of Dangerous Substances in Port Areas

Short ton (2000 lb. Avoirpois)

ICS/OCIMF Ship to Ship Transfer Guide

saybolt seconds, Universal. The units of an empirical flow resistance measurement (Saybolt Universal viscosity). The acronym sometimes appears as SUS, Saybolt Universal seconds.

Summer salt water

Side tank

Sidethruster room (OCIMF acronym)

Crude and products which will not change spontaneously or readily have this attribute. Jet fuels, for instance, need thermal stability. They must resist decomposition when heated.

Ship Stability: The tendency of a vessel to return to an erect position after being inclined by an exterior force.Also known as positive stability.

It is paramount that a vessel is stable in all respects at all times. When cargo is loaded / discharged, the stability is monitored by a computer, which takes into account the weight and position of cargo within the vessel

An addition of titanium or niobium, making stainless steels less sensitive to intergranular corrosion

Crude and condensates come from the ground mixed with gas and light gas liquids. Removal of these volatile materials leaves a stabilized stream--one with a vapor pressure ordinary storage and transportation vessels can safely handle.

A stabilizer is a substance added to another substance to prevent an alteration of its physical state. Stabilizers are added to plastics so as to allow them to have a long and useful life in any application, by keeping their properties stable.

The notion of constancy and steadiness has several applications in the oil industry. Frequently it describes crude freed of volatile light ends--stabilized crude. Other times, it refers to blends of compatible components, mixtures which will not spontaneously separate. Stable cracked fuel oil, therefore, means a combination of ingredients which will not divide into two parts, each insoluble in the other.

An articulated five–platform rail car that allows containers to be double stacked. A typical stack car holds ten 40–foot equivalent units (FEU’s).

A rail service whereby rail cars carry containers stacked two high on specially operated unit trains. Each train includes up to 35 articulated multi–platform cars. Each car is comprised of 5 well–type platforms upon which containers can be stacked. No chassis accompany containers.

A common description of crude oils sold on the world market. The normal run of a crude grade as available at a loading point.

A standard numerical code used by the U.S. Government to classify products and services.

A standard numeric code developed by the United Nations to classify commodities used in international trade, based on a hierarchy.

A vessel primarily equipped to perform safety standby duties. Will be fitted with accommodation and facilities for the rescue, reception and initial care of survivors from offshore installations accidents

Right side of a ship when facing the front or forward end

A slate tablet was kept near the helm on which the watch keeper would record the speeds, distances, headings and tacks during the watch. If there were no problems during the watch, the slate would be wiped clean so that the new watch could start over with a clean slate.

A law limiting the time in which claims or suits may be instituted.

Startboard

Self-trimming bulk carrier

Starboard

Ship To Be Lightered

Said to contain.

Standard Transportation Commodity Code

Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping

Standards of Training Certification and Watchkeeping Convention (IMO)

Completed basic tanker training that applies to junior officers who have cargo-handling responsibilities

Completed specialized training that is required for officers who have operational responsibility for cargo transfer

Standards

A petrochemical plant unit which produces olefins, particularly ethylene, and in some cases aromatics, by pyrolysis. The trade often calls these plants ethylene crackers, after their primary product. Some units, called light liquids crackers, crack ethane or LPG. Heavy liquids crackers can run on naphtha or gasoil feedstocks.

Steam cracking, a further application of thermal cracking, is a petrochemical process used to produce olefinic raw materials (e.g. propylene, ethylene) from various feedstocks for petrochemicals manufacture. The feedstocks range from ethane to vacuum gas oil, with heavier feeds giving higher yields of by-products such as naphtha. The most common feeds are ethane, butane, and naphtha.

A non propelled pontoon used for the purpose of generating a steam supply

A group of vessel operators joined together for the purpose of establishing freight rates.

An indemnity issued to the carrier by a bank; protects the carrier against any possible losses or dam- ages arising from release of the merchandise to the receiving party. This instrument is usually issued when the bill of lading is lost or is not available.

Chemically, an 18 carbon chain saturated acid. Commercially, the term is used for mixed solid acids of various compositions. Stearic acid is used for industrial purposes such as in the rubber and oleochemical industries. Beef tallow is the principal source of commercial stearic acid. Stearic acid is one of the most important saturated fatty acids present in the triglycerides of both animal and vegetable fats/oils. Stearic acid and its derivatives have uses in many industries, such as the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.

The term refers to the solid fraction of an oil obtained by filtration or centrifugation after the oil has been crystallised at a controlled temperature. Stearins are characterised by being more saturated than the oils from which they are derived. Fractionation of palm oil yields palm stearin which is used in shortenings, vanaspati, margarines and soap.

Short Term Exposure Limit. See Threshold Limit Value

Referring to the readiness of cargo which is often a prerequisite to the fixing of a vessel

A parcel of crude or product made available by a supplier. Sometimes a lot provided to a term lifter. Sometimes a spot availability.

see LAYDAYS

Sterilisation is the first process carried out at the oil mill. Fresh fruit bunches are loaded into cages as soon as possible after arrival at the mill, and the cages, which run on rails, are loaded into a horizontal cylindrical pressure vessel. The load is cooked under steam pressure for about 1½ hours. By this means, enzymes are inactivated and the fruit is softened.

At or towards the rear of a ship

A vessel for catching fish by trawling with nets handled over the stern

A compound made up of the sterol nucleus and 8-10 carbon side chain and an alcohol group.

Individual or firm that employs longshoremen and who contracts to load or unload the ship.

International convention on standards of training certification and watch-keeping for seafarers

International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, 1978

Seafarers training certification and watch-keeping

Salvage tug

Informal, familiar abbreviations of distillation unit.

Steel