Egg that cracks tanker safety Nick Savvides explains how a new tanker design could be left high and dry

• Published in: The Guardian (London)
• Main Author: Savvides, Nick
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Manchester (UK) Guardian News & Media Limited 07.03.1996
• ISSN: 0261-3077

Safer, cheaper oil tankers appeared to come a step nearer this week when the `Coulombi Egg', a radical new design, was approved by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) yesterday. Swedish naval architect Anders Bjorkman, inventor of the Egg, believes his design could revolutionise tanker safety by eliminating many of the problems associated with competing designs. He named his invention after Columbus' legendary egg, which stood on its tip after being broken at one end, proving the impossible could be achieved. Yet although it is superior in many ways, and despite its IMO approval, the Egg is unlikely to gain widespread recognition in the face of opposition from the US. But Bjorkman is adamant that the days of the DHT are numbered, and hopes that reason may yet prevail. Unlike a DHT, a tanker based on the Egg design has a number of small tanks, containing oil at a lower pressure than the external sea-water. This means that if the hull is breached, water flows in rather than oil flowing out. And, since oil floats on water, as the water fills the tank the oil is pushed up through access trunks and is automatically transferred into the ship's empty ballast tanks.