PANAM FLOTA is due in Montreal later this evening to unload her cargo of petroleum products. After unloading the vessel will sail to Erie to load biodiesel. In preparation for the load, CSX has 24 loaded tank cars stored on a siding on Erie's bayfront which will be moved to the Mountfort Terminal to load the vessel.
The PANAM FLOTA's visit will be shorter than the visit last December by the CLIPPER TOBAGO, as most of the the 3,000,000 gallons the PANAM FLOTA will be loading will be ready for the vessel. When the TOBAGO loaded last December, the cargo was not completely ready and in order to fulfill the order and get the vessel out of the Seaway before closing, Lake Erie Biofuels was forced to buy some of the biodiesel from other plants and have it shipped in to finish the load on the vessel.
Although the PANAM FLOTA's time in port will likely be shorter than the TOBAGO's, the actual load time on the FLOTA will be longer, as the load the FLOTA is taking is double the size of the first biodiesel shipment.
I will continue to follow this story and update as it develops.
