The Ultra Large Crude oil tanker (“ULCC”)  has a deadweight of 564,763 tons and a summer displacement of 647,955 tons when laden with nearly 650,000 m ³ (4.1 million barrels) of crude oil. When fully laden, she sits 24.6 meters in the water, too deep to enter most of the world’s major ports and needs to be loaded and unloaded while anchored at open sea, which increases the risk of accidents and spillages. She cannot pass through either the Suez or Panama canals, or through the 32-mile-wide English Channel when fully laden.

Knock Nevis, was built at Sumimoto Corporation’s Oppama shipyard in Japan for a Greek owner who did not take delivery. Initially she was not ultra large, with only a displacement of 480,000 tons deadweight. The unfinished ship was bought by a Hong Kong shipping magnate C.Y. Tung who took her to the TSU shipyard in Japan for lengthening and had her extended by 90 meters, thus increasing her load-carrying capacity and making her the largest ship ever built. The ship was finally floated two years later in 1979 and named “Seawise Giant”.
At first she operated in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, later she was employed for exporting oil from Iran during the Iran-Iraq War. In 1986, the ship was hit by an Exocet missiles in the Strait of Harmuz by Iraqi-run French fighter. At the end of the Iran-Iraq War in 1989, the Norwegian based Norman International bought the ship, had her refloated, repaired, and renamed “Happy Giant”. In 1991, she was renamed again due to the acquirement by Norwegian shipping company Jorgen Jahre Shipping, this time to the “Jahre Viking”.
The ULCC traded in the spot market, mainly from Saudi Arabia for one client Exxon, but also for Elf and Total.  In1997 Jahre Viking was acquired by Loki ASA (40% owned by First Olsen Tankers Ltd) and in 2003 First Olsen took over the ULCC after a reorganization of Loki ASA.
In March 2004, the ship was sent by its new owners, Singaporean tanker company First Olsen Pte Ltd, to the Dubai drydocks to be converted as a floating storage and offloading unit (“FSO”). There, she was given her current name, Knock Nevis. The ship started in August 2004 a five year contract with Mærsk Oil Qatar as a FSO for the Al Shaheen oilfield in the waters of Qatar. Daily some 350 – 400,000 barrels of oil fluid from the Al Shaheen oil production was received onboard (equal to about 20% of the current daily oil production in the Norwegian sector of the North sea which is 2 million barrels per day), the water decanted and crude oil stored onboard one of the 81 tanks in Knock Nevis.  On average every third day VLCC or Suezmax tanker pulled up and loaded full cargoes (about 1-2 million barrels) of crude oil for export. The contract was completed in August 2009 and the vessel was remobilized to Fujairah, UEA undergoing decommissioning and de-mucking of the oil tanks preparing for new employments.
Agreement to sell FSO Knock Nevis to an Asian crude oil storage and bunkering company was entered into in November and the vessel was delivered to new owners on 11 December 2009.  We wish the re-named vessel MT Mont all the best and success in any future operations she may enter.