Flushing completes 21-metre draft dredging programme
8 July 2026 / Operations
The Westerschelde berths now accept the largest crude carriers in the North Sea trade without tidal restriction.
Dredging at the Flushing berths has reached 21 metres, removing the tidal windows that previously constrained the largest vessels in the crude trade.
For customers, the practical effect is schedule certainty. A laden VLCC that previously waited for a favourable tide now berths on arrival, which compresses the demurrage exposure on every voyage. Our own planning benefits too: berth allocation becomes a linear problem again rather than a tide-dependent one, and the terminal can commit to alongside discharge rates with confidence.
The programme took fourteen months and was carried out without interrupting commercial operations.