title: Oil refinery

text: Materials methods include selecting the proper material for the application. In areas of minimal corrosion, cheap materials are preferable, but when bad corrosion can occur, more expensive but longer-lasting materials should be used. Other materials methods come in the form of protective barriers between corrosive substances and the equipment metals. These can be either a lining of refractory material such as standard Portland cement or other special acid-resistant cement that is shot onto the inner surface of the vessel. Also available are thin overlays of more expensive metals that protect cheaper metal against corrosion without requiring much material.


title: Oil tanker

text: An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crude oil from its point of extraction to refineries. Product tankers, generally much smaller, are designed to move refined products from refineries to points near consuming markets.


title: Oil tanker

text: Oil tankers are often classified by their size as well as their occupation. The size classes range from inland or coastal tankers of a few thousand metric tons of deadweight (DWT) to the mammoth ultra large crude carriers (ULCCs) of . Tankers move approximately of oil every year. Second only to pipelines in terms of efficiency, the average cost of transport of crude oil by tanker amounts to only US.


title: Oil tanker

text: Some specialized types of oil tankers have evolved. One of these is the naval replenishment oiler, a tanker which can fuel a moving vessel. Combination ore-bulk-oil carriers and permanently moored floating storage units are two other variations on the standard oil tanker design. Oil tankers have been involved in a number of damaging and high-profile oil spills. As a result, they are subject to stringent design and operational regulations.


title: Oil tanker

text: The technology of oil transportation has evolved alongside the oil industry. Although human use of oil reaches to prehistory, the first modern commercial exploitation dates back to James Young's manufacture of paraffin in 1850. In the early 1850s, oil began to be exported from Upper Burma, then a British colony. The oil was moved in earthenware vessels to the river bank where it was then poured into boat holds for transportation to Britain.


title: Oil tanker

text: In the 1860s, Pennsylvania oil fields became a major supplier of oil, and a center of innovation after Edwin Drake had struck oil near Titusville, Pennsylvania. Break-bulk boats and barges were originally used to transport Pennsylvania oil in wooden barrels. But transport by barrel had several problems. The first problem was weight: they weighed , representing 20% of the total weight of a full barrel. Other problems with barrels were their expense, their tendency to leak, and the fact that they were generally used only once. The expense was significant: for example, in the early years of the Russian oil industry, barrels accounted for half the cost of petroleum production.


title: Oil tanker

text: In 1863, two sail-driven tankers were built on England's River Tyne. These were followed in 1873 by the first oil-tank steamer, "Vaderland" (Fatherland), which was built by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company for Belgian owners. The vessel's use was curtailed by US and Belgian authorities citing safety concerns. By 1871, the Pennsylvania oil fields were making limited use of oil tank barges and cylindrical railroad tank-cars similar to those in use today.


title: Oil tanker

text: The modern oil tanker was developed in the period from 1877 to 1885. In 1876, Ludvig and Robert Nobel, brothers of Alfred Nobel, founded Branobel (short for Brothers Nobel) in Baku, Azerbaijan. It was, during the late 19th century, one of the largest oil companies in the world.


title: Oil tanker

text: Ludvig was a pioneer in the development of early oil tankers. He first experimented with carrying oil in bulk on single-hulled barges. Turning his attention to self-propelled tankships, he faced a number of challenges. A primary concern was to keep the cargo and fumes well away from the engine room to avoid fires. Other challenges included allowing for the cargo to expand and contract due to temperature changes, and providing a method to ventilate the tanks.


title: Oil tanker

text: The first successful oil tanker was "Zoroaster", which carried its of kerosene cargo in two iron tanks joined by pipes. One tank was forward of the midships engine room and the other was aft. The ship also featured a set of 21 vertical watertight compartments for extra buoyancy. The ship had a length overall of , a beam of , and a draft of . Unlike later Nobel tankers, the "Zoroaster" design was built small enough to sail from Sweden to the Caspian by way of the Baltic Sea, Lake Ladoga, Lake Onega, the Rybinsk and Mariinsk Canals and the Volga River.


title: Oil tanker

text: In 1883, oil tanker design took a large step forward. Working for the Nobel company, British engineer Colonel Henry F. Swan designed a set of three Nobel tankers. Instead of one or two large holds, Swan's design used several holds which spanned the width, or beam, of the ship. These holds were further subdivided into port and starboard sections by a longitudinal bulkhead. Earlier designs suffered from stability problems caused by the free surface effect, where oil sloshing from side to side could cause a ship to capsize. But this approach of dividing the ship's storage space into smaller tanks virtually eliminated free-surface problems. This approach, almost universal today, was first used by Swan in the Nobel tankers "Blesk", "Lumen", and "Lux".


title: Oil tanker

text: Others point to , another design of Colonel Swan, as being the first modern oil tanker. It adopted the best practices from previous oil tanker designs to create the prototype for all subsequent vessels of the type. It was the first dedicated steam-driven ocean-going tanker in the world and was the first ship in which oil could be pumped directly into the vessel hull instead of being loaded in barrels or drums. It was also the first tanker with a horizontal bulkhead; its features included cargo valves operable from the deck, cargo main piping, a vapor line, cofferdams for added safety, and the ability to fill a ballast tank with seawater when empty of cargo. The ship was built in Britain, and was purchased by Wilhelm Anton Riedemann, an agent for the Standard Oil Company along with several of her sister ships. After "Glückauf" was lost in 1893 after being grounded in fog, Standard Oil purchased the sister ships.


title: Oil tanker

text: The 1880s also saw the beginnings of the Asian oil trade. The idea that led to moving Russian oil to the Far East via the Suez Canal was the brainchild of two men: importer Marcus Samuel and shipowner/broker Fred Lane. Prior bids to move oil through the canal had been rejected by the Suez Canal Company as being too risky. Samuel approached the problem a different way: asking the company for the specifications of a tanker it would allow through the canal.


title: Oil tanker

text: Armed with the canal company's specifications, Samuel ordered three tankers from William Gray & Company in northern England. Named , "Conch" and "Clam", each had a capacity of 5,010 long tons of deadweight. These three ships were the first tankers of the Tank Syndicate, forerunner of today's Royal Dutch Shell company.


title: Oil tanker

text: With facilities prepared in Jakarta, Singapore, Bangkok, Saigon, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Kobe, the fledgling Shell company was ready to become Standard Oil's first challenger in the Asian market. On August 24, 1892, "Murex" became the first tanker to pass through the Suez Canal. By the time Shell merged with Royal Dutch Petroleum in 1907, the company had 34 steam-driven oil tankers, compared to Standard Oil's four case-oil steamers and 16 sailing tankers.


title: Oil tanker

text: Until 1956, tankers were designed to be able to navigate the Suez Canal. This size restriction became much less of a priority after the closing of the canal during the Suez Crisis of 1956. Forced to move oil around the Cape of Good Hope, shipowners realized that bigger tankers were the key to more efficient transport. While a typical T2 tanker of the World War II era was long and had a capacity of , the ultra-large crude carriers (ULCC) built in the 1970s were over long and had a capacity of . Several factors encouraged this growth. Hostilities in the Middle East which interrupted traffic through the Suez Canal contributed, as did nationalization of Middle East oil refineries. Fierce competition among shipowners also played a part. But apart from these considerations is a simple economic advantage: the larger an oil tanker is, the more cheaply it can move crude oil, and the better it can help meet growing demands for oil.


title: Oil tanker

text: In 1955 the world's largest supertanker was and : SS "Spyros Niarchos" launched that year by Vickers Armstrongs Shipbuilders Ltd in England for Greek shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos.


title: Oil tanker

text: In 1958 United States shipping magnate Daniel K. Ludwig broke the record of 100,000 long tons of heavy displacement. His "Universe Apollo" displaced 104,500 long tons, a 23% increase from the previous record-holder, "Universe Leader" which also belonged to Ludwig.


title: Oil tanker

text: The world's largest supertanker was built in 1979 at the Oppama shipyard by Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd., named "Seawise Giant". This ship was built with a capacity of , a length overall of and a draft of . She had 46 tanks, of deck, and at her full load draft, could not navigate the English Channel.


title: Oil tanker

text: "Seawise Giant" was renamed "Happy Giant" in 1989, "Jahre Viking" in 1991, and "Knock Nevis" in 2004 (when she was converted into a permanently moored storage tanker). In 2009 she was sold for the last time, renamed "Mont", and scrapped.


title: Oil tanker

text: As of 2011, the world's two largest working supertankers are the s "TI Europe" and "TI Oceania". These ships were built in 2002 and 2003 as "Hellespont Alhambra" and "Hellespont Tara" for the Greek Hellespont Steamship Corporation. Hellespont sold these ships to Overseas Shipholding Group and Euronav in 2004. Each of the sister ships has a capacity of over , a length overall of and a cargo capacity of . They were the first ULCCs to be double-hulled. To differentiate them from smaller ULCCs, these ships are sometimes given the "V-Plus" size designation.


title: Oil tanker

text: With the exception of the pipeline, the tanker is the most cost-effective way to move oil today. Worldwide, tankers carry some annually, and the cost of transportation by tanker amounts to only US$0.02 per gallon at the pump.


title: Oil tanker

text: In 1954, Shell Oil developed the "average freight rate assessment" (AFRA) system which classifies tankers of different sizes. To make it an independent instrument, Shell consulted the "London Tanker Brokers' Panel (LTBP)". At first, they divided the groups as "General Purpose" for tankers under ; "Medium Range" for ships between 25,000 and 45,000 DWT and "Long Range" for the then-enormous ships that were larger than 45,000 DWT. The ships became larger during the 1970s, which prompted rescaling.


title: Oil tanker

text: The system was developed for tax reasons as the tax authorities wanted evidence that the internal billing records were correct. Before the New York Mercantile Exchange started trading crude oil futures in 1983, it was difficult to determine the exact price of oil, which could change with every contract. Shell and BP, the first companies to use the system, abandoned the AFRA system in 1983, later followed by the US oil companies. However, the system is still used today. Besides that, there is the flexible market scale, which takes typical routes and lots of .


title: Oil tanker

text: Merchant oil tankers carry a wide range of hydrocarbon liquids ranging from crude oil to refined petroleum products. Crude carriers are among the largest, ranging from 55,000 DWT Panamax-sized vessels to ultra-large crude carriers (ULCCs) of over 440,000 DWT.


title: Oil tanker

text: Smaller tankers, ranging from well under 10,000 DWT to 80,000 DWT Panamax vessels, generally carry refined petroleum products, and are known as product tankers. The smallest tankers, with capacities under 10,000 DWT generally work near-coastal and inland waterways. Although they were in the past, ships of the smaller Aframax and Suezmax classes are no longer regarded as supertankers.


title: Oil tanker

text: "Supertankers" are the largest oil tankers, and the largest mobile man-made structures. They include very large and ultra-large crude carriers (VLCCs and ULCCs – see above) with capacities over 250,000 DWT. These ships can transport of oil/318,000 metric tons. By way of comparison, the United Kingdom consumed about of oil per day in 2009. ULCCs commissioned in the 1970s were the largest vessels ever built, but have all now been scrapped. A few newer ULCCs remain in service, none of which are more than 400 meters long.


title: Oil tanker

text: Because of their size, supertankers often cannot enter port fully loaded. These ships can take on their cargo at offshore platforms and single-point moorings. On the other end of the journey, they often pump their cargo off to smaller tankers at designated lightering points off-coast. Supertanker routes are typically long, requiring them to stay at sea for extended periods, often around seventy days at a time.


title: Oil tanker

text: The act of hiring a ship to carry cargo is called chartering. Tankers are hired by four types of charter agreements: the voyage charter, the time charter, the bareboat charter, and contract of affreightment. In a voyage charter the charterer rents the vessel from the loading port to the discharge port. In a time charter the vessel is hired for a set period of time, to perform voyages as the charterer directs. In a bareboat charter the charterer acts as the ship's operator and manager, taking on responsibilities such as providing the crew and maintaining the vessel. Finally, in a contract of affreightment or COA, the charterer specifies a total volume of cargo to be carried in a specific time period and in specific sizes, for example a COA could be specified as of JP-5 in a year's time in shipments. A completed chartering contract is known as a charter party.


title: Oil tanker

text: One of the key aspects of any charter party is the freight rate, or the price specified for carriage of cargo. The freight rate of a tanker charter party is specified in one of four ways: by a lump sum rate, by rate per ton, by a time charter equivalent rate, or by Worldscale rate. In a lump sum rate arrangement, a fixed price is negotiated for the delivery of a specified cargo, and the ship's owner/operator is responsible to pay for all port costs and other voyage expenses. Rate per ton arrangements are used mostly in chemical tanker chartering, and differ from lump sum rates in that port costs and voyage expenses are generally paid by the charterer. Time charter arrangements specify a daily rate, and port costs and voyage expenses are also generally paid by the charterer.


title: Oil tanker

text: The Worldwide Tanker Normal Freight Scale, often referred to as Worldscale, is established and governed jointly by the Worldscale Associations of London and New York. Worldscale establishes a baseline price for carrying a metric ton of product between any two ports in the world. In Worldscale negotiations, operators and charterers will determine a price based on a percentage of the Worldscale rate. The baseline rate is expressed as WS 100. If a given charter party settled on 85% of the Worldscale rate, it would be expressed as WS 85. Similarly, a charter party set at 125% of the Worldscale rate would be expressed as WS 125.


title: Oil tanker

text: The market is affected by a wide variety of variables such as the supply and demand of oil as well as the supply and demand of oil tankers. Some particular variables include winter temperatures, excess tanker tonnage, supply fluctuations in the Persian Gulf, and interruptions in refinery services.


title: Oil tanker

text: In 2006, time-charters tended towards long term. Of the time charters executed in that year, 58% were for a period of 24 or more months, 14% were for periods of 12 to 24 months, 4% were from 6 to 12 months, and 24% were for periods of less than 6 months.


title: Oil tanker

text: From 2003, the demand for new ships started to grow, resulting in 2007 in a record breaking order backlog for shipyards, exceeding their capacity with rising newbuilding prices as a result. This resulted in a glut of ships when demand dropped due to a weakened global economy and dramatically reduced demand in the United States. The charter rate for very large crude carriers, which carry two million barrels of oil, had peaked at $309,601 per day in 2007 but had dropped to $7,085 per day by 2012, far below the operating costs of these ships. As a result, several tanker operators laid up their ships. Prices rose significantly in 2015 and early 2016, but delivery of new tankers was projected to keep prices in check.


title: Oil tanker

text: Owners of large oil tanker fleets include Teekay Corporation, A P Moller Maersk, DS Torm, Frontline, MOL Tankship Management, Overseas Shipholding Group, and Euronav.


title: Oil tanker

text: In 2005, oil tankers made up 36.9% of the world's fleet in terms of deadweight tonnage. The world's total oil tankers deadweight tonnage has increased from in 1970 to in 2005. The combined deadweight tonnage of oil tankers and bulk carriers, represents 72.9% of the world's fleet.


title: Oil tanker

text: In 2005, 2.42 billion metric tons of oil were shipped by tanker. 76.7% of this was crude oil, and the rest consisted of refined petroleum products. This amounted to 34.1% of all seaborne trade for the year. Combining the amount carried with the distance it was carried, oil tankers moved 11,705 billion metric-ton-miles of oil in 2005.


title: Oil tanker

text: By comparison, in 1970 1.44 billion metric tons of oil were shipped by tanker. This amounted to 34.1% of all seaborne trade for that year. In terms of amount carried and distance carried, oil tankers moved 6,487 billion metric-ton-miles of oil in 1970.


title: Oil tanker

text: The United Nations also keeps statistics about oil tanker productivity, stated in terms of metric tons carried per metric ton of deadweight as well as metric-ton-miles of carriage per metric ton of deadweight. In 2005, for each of oil tankers, 6.7 metric tons of cargo was carried. Similarly, each of oil tankers was responsible for 32,400 metric-ton miles of carriage.


title: Oil tanker

text: The main loading ports in 2005 were located in Western Asia, Western Africa, North Africa, and the Caribbean, with 196.3, 196.3, 130.2 and 246.6 million metric tons of cargo loaded in these regions. The main discharge ports were located in North America, Europe, and Japan with 537.7, 438.4, and 215.0 million metric tons of cargo discharged in these regions.


title: Oil tanker

text: International law requires that every merchant ship be registered in a country, called its flag state. A ship's flag state exercises regulatory control over the vessel and is required to inspect it regularly, certify the ship's equipment and crew, and issue safety and pollution prevention documents. As of 2007, the United States Central Intelligence Agency statistics count 4,295 oil tankers of or greater worldwide. Panama was the world's largest flag state for oil tankers, with 528 of the vessels in its registry. Six other flag states had more than 200 registered oil tankers: Liberia (464), Singapore (355), China (252), Russia (250), the Marshall Islands (234) and the Bahamas (209). The Panamanian, Liberian, Marshallese and Bahamian flags are open registries and considered by the International Transport Workers' Federation to be flags of convenience. By comparison, the United States and the United Kingdom only had 59 and 27 registered oil tankers, respectively.


title: Oil tanker

text: In 2005, the average age of oil tankers worldwide was 10 years. Of these, 31.6% were under 4 years old and 14.3% were over 20 years old. In 2005, 475 new oil tankers were built, accounting for . The average size for these new tankers was . Nineteen of these were VLCC size, 19 were Suezmax, 51 were Aframax, and the rest were smaller designs. By comparison, , , and worth of oil tanker capacity was built in 1980, 1990, and 2000 respectively.


title: Oil tanker

text: Ships are generally removed from the fleet through a process known as scrapping. Ship-owners and buyers negotiate scrap prices based on factors such as the ship's empty weight (called light ton displacement or LDT) and prices in the scrap metal market. In 1998, almost 700 ships went through the scrapping process at shipbreakers in places such as Gadani, Alang and Chittagong. In 2004 and 2005, and respectively of oil tankers were scrapped. Between 2000 and 2005, the capacity of oil tankers scrapped each year has ranged between and . In this same timeframe, tankers have accounted for between 56.5% and 90.5% of the world's total scrapped ship tonnage. In this period the average age of scrapped oil tankers has ranged from 26.9 to 31.5 years.


title: Oil tanker

text: In 2005, the price for new oil tankers in the , , and ranges were $43 million, $58 million, and $120 million respectively. In 1985 these vessels would have cost $18 million, $22 million, and $47 million respectively.


title: Oil tanker

text: Oil tankers are often sold second hand. In 2005, worth of oil tankers were sold used. Some representative prices for that year include $42.5 million for a tanker, $60.7 million for a , $73 million for a , and $116 million for tanker. For a concrete example, in 2006, Bonheur subsidiary First Olsen paid $76.5 million for "Knock Sheen", a 159,899 DWT tanker.


title: Oil tanker

text: The cost of operating the largest tankers, the Very Large Crude Carriers, is currently between $10,000 and $12,000 per day.


title: Oil tanker

text: Oil tankers generally have from 8 to 12 tanks. Each tank is split into two or three independent compartments by fore-and-aft bulkheads. The tanks are numbered with tank one being the forwardmost. Individual compartments are referred to by the tank number and the athwartships position, such as "one port", "three starboard", or "six center".


title: Oil tanker

text: A cofferdam is a small space left open between two bulkheads, to give protection from heat, fire, or collision. Tankers generally have cofferdams forward and aft of the cargo tanks, and sometimes between individual tanks. A pumproom houses all the pumps connected to a tanker's cargo lines. Some larger tankers have two pumprooms. A pumproom generally spans the total breadth of the ship.


title: Oil tanker

text: A major component of tanker architecture is the design of the hull or outer structure. A tanker with a single outer shell between the product and the ocean is said to be "single-hulled". Most newer tankers are "double hulled", with an extra space between the hull and the storage tanks. Hybrid designs such as "double-bottom" and "double-sided" combine aspects of single and double-hull designs. All single-hulled tankers around the world will be phased out by 2026, in accordance with the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973 (MARPOL). The United Nations has decided to phase out single hull oil tankers by 2010.


title: Oil tanker

text: In 1998, the Marine Board of the National Academy of Sciences conducted a survey of industry experts regarding the pros and cons of double-hull design. Some of the advantages of the double-hull design that were mentioned include ease of ballasting in emergency situations, reduced practice of saltwater ballasting in cargo tanks decreases corrosion, increased environmental protection, cargo discharge is quicker, more complete and easier, tank washing is more efficient, and better protection in low-impact collisions and grounding.


title: Oil tanker

text: The same report lists the following as some drawbacks to the double-hull design, including higher build costs, greater operating expenses (e.g. higher canal and port tariffs), difficulties in ballast tank ventilation, the fact that ballast tanks need continuous monitoring and maintenance, increased transverse free surface, the greater number of surfaces to maintain, the risk of explosions in double-hull spaces if a vapor detection system not fitted, and that cleaning ballast tanks is more difficult for double hull ships.


title: Oil tanker

text: In all, double-hull tankers are said to be safer than a single-hull in a grounding incident, especially when the shore is not very rocky. The safety benefits are less clear on larger vessels and in cases of high speed impact.


title: Oil tanker

text: Although double-hull design is superior in low energy casualties and prevents spillage in small casualties, in high energy casualties where both hulls are breached, oil can spill through the double-hull and into the sea and spills from a double-hull tanker can be significantly higher than designs like the mid-deck tanker, the Coulombi Egg Tanker and even a pre-MARPOL tanker, as the last one has a lower oil column and reaches hydrostatic balance sooner.


title: Oil tanker

text: An oil tanker's inert gas system is one of the most important parts of its design. Fuel oil itself is very difficult to ignite, but its hydrocarbon vapors are explosive when mixed with air in certain concentrations. The purpose of the system is to create an atmosphere inside tanks in which the hydrocarbon oil vapors cannot burn.


title: Oil tanker

text: As inert gas is introduced into a mixture of hydrocarbon vapors and air, it increases the lower flammable limit or lowest concentration at which the vapors can be ignited. At the same time it decreases the upper flammable limit or highest concentration at which the vapors can be ignited. When the total concentration of oxygen in the tank decreases to about 11%, the upper and lower flammable limits converge and the flammable range disappears.


title: Oil tanker

text: Inert gas systems deliver air with an oxygen concentration of less than 5% by volume. As a tank is pumped out, it is filled with inert gas and kept in this safe state until the next cargo is loaded. The exception is in cases when the tank must be entered. Safely gas-freeing a tank is accomplished by purging hydrocarbon vapors with inert gas until the hydrocarbon concentration inside the tank is under about 1%. Thus, as air replaces the inert gas, the concentration cannot rise to the lower flammable limit and is safe.


title: Oil tanker

text: Operations aboard oil tankers are governed by an established body of best practices and a large body of international law. Cargo can be moved on or off of an oil tanker in several ways. One method is for the ship to moor alongside a pier, connect with cargo hoses or marine loading arms. Another method involves mooring to offshore buoys, such as a single point mooring, and making a cargo connection via underwater cargo hoses. A third method is by ship-to-ship transfer, also known as lightering. In this method, two ships come alongside in open sea and oil is transferred manifold to manifold via flexible hoses. Lightering is sometimes used where a loaded tanker is too large to enter a specific port.


title: Oil tanker

text: Prior to any transfer of cargo, the chief officer must develop a transfer plan detailing specifics of the operation such as how much cargo will be moved, which tanks will be cleaned, and how the ship's ballasting will change. The next step before a transfer is the pretransfer conference. The pretransfer conference covers issues such as what products will be moved, the order of movement, names and titles of key people, particulars of shipboard and shore equipment, critical states of the transfer, regulations in effect, emergency and spill-containment procedures, watch and shift arrangements, and shutdown procedures.


title: Oil tanker

text: After the conference is complete, the person in charge on the ship and the person in charge of the shore installation go over a final inspection checklist. In the United States, the checklist is called a Declaration of Inspection or DOI. Outside the US, the document is called the "Ship/Shore Safety Checklist." Items on the checklist include proper signals and signs are displayed, secure mooring of the vessel, choice of language for communication, securing of all connections, that emergency equipment is in place, and that no repair work is taking place.


title: Oil tanker

text: Loading an oil tanker consists primarily of pumping cargo into the ship's tanks. As oil enters the tank, the vapors inside the tank must be somehow expelled. Depending on local regulations, the vapors can be expelled into the atmosphere or discharged back to the pumping station by way of a vapor recovery line. It is also common for the ship to move water ballast during the loading of cargo to maintain proper trim.


title: Oil tanker

text: Loading starts slowly at a low pressure to ensure that equipment is working correctly and that connections are secure. Then a steady pressure is achieved and held until the "topping-off" phase when the tanks are nearly full. Topping off is a very dangerous time in handling oil, and the procedure is handled particularly carefully. Tank-gauging equipment is used to tell the person in charge how much space is left in the tank, and all tankers have at least two independent methods for tank-gauging. As the tanker becomes full, crew members open and close valves to direct the flow of product and maintain close communication with the pumping facility to decrease and finally stop the flow of liquid.


title: Oil tanker

text: The process of moving oil off of a tanker is similar to loading, but has some key differences. The first step in the operation is following the same pretransfer procedures as used in loading. When the transfer begins, it is the ship's cargo pumps that are used to move the product ashore. As in loading, the transfer starts at low pressure to ensure that equipment is working correctly and that connections are secure. Then a steady pressure is achieved and held during the operation. While pumping, tank levels are carefully watched and key locations, such as the connection at the cargo manifold and the ship's pumproom are constantly monitored. Under the direction of the person in charge, crew members open and close valves to direct the flow of product and maintain close communication with the receiving facility to decrease and finally stop the flow of liquid.


title: Oil tanker

text: Tanks must be cleaned from time to time for various reasons. One reason is to change the type of product carried inside a tank. Also, when tanks are to be inspected or maintenance must be performed within a tank, it must be not only cleaned, but made "gas-free".


title: Oil tanker

text: On most crude-oil tankers, a special crude oil washing (COW) system is part of the cleaning process. The COW system circulates part of the cargo through the fixed tank-cleaning system to remove wax and asphaltic deposits. Tanks that carry less viscous cargoes are washed with water. Fixed and portable automated tank cleaning machines, which clean tanks with high-pressure water jets, are widely used. Some systems use rotating high-pressure water jets to spray hot water on all the internal surfaces of the tank. As the spraying takes place, the liquid is pumped out of the tank.


title: Oil tanker

text: After a tank is cleaned, provided that it is going to be prepared for entry, it will be "purged". Purging is accomplished by pumping inert gas into the tank until hydrocarbons have been sufficiently expelled. Next the tank is "gas freed" which is usually accomplished by blowing fresh air into the space with portable air powered or water powered air blowers. "Gas freeing" brings the oxygen content of the tank up to 20.8% O. The inert gas buffer between fuel and oxygen atmospheres ensures they are never capable of ignition. Specially trained personnel monitor the tank's atmosphere, often using hand-held gas indicators which measure the percentage of hydrocarbons present. After a tank is gas-free, it may be further hand-cleaned in a manual process known as mucking. Mucking requires protocols for entry into confined spaces, protective clothing, designated safety observers, and possibly the use of airline respirators.


title: Oil tanker

text: Some sub-types of oil tankers have evolved to meet specific military and economic needs. These sub-types include naval replenishment ships, oil-bulk-ore combination carriers, floating storage and offloading units (FSOs) and floating production storage and offloading units (FPSOs).


title: Oil tanker

text: Replenishment ships, known as oilers in the United States and fleet tankers in Commonwealth countries, are ships that can provide oil products to naval vessels while on the move. This process, called underway replenishment, extends the length of time a naval vessel can stay at sea, as well as her effective range. Prior to underway replenishment, naval vessels had to enter a port or anchor to take on fuel. In addition to fuel, replenishment ships may also deliver water, ammunition, rations, stores and personnel.


title: Oil tanker

text: An ore-bulk-oil carrier, also known as combination carrier or OBO, is a ship designed to be capable of carrying wet or dry bulk cargoes. This design was intended to provide flexibility in two ways. Firstly, an OBO would be able to switch between the dry and wet bulk trades based on market conditions. Secondly, an OBO could carry oil on one leg of a voyage and return carrying dry bulk, reducing the number of unprofitable ballast voyages it would have to make.


title: Oil tanker

text: In practice, the flexibility which the OBO design allows has gone largely unused, as these ships tend to specialize in either the liquid or dry bulk trade. Also, these ships have endemic maintenance problems. On one hand, due to a less specialized design, an OBO suffers more from wear and tear during dry cargo onload than a bulker. On the other hand, components of the liquid cargo system, from pumps to valves to piping, tend to develop problems when subjected to periods of disuse. These factors have contributed to a steady reduction in the number of OBO ships worldwide since the 1970s.


title: Oil tanker

text: One of the more famous OBOs was of which in September 1980 became the largest British ship ever lost at sea. It sank in a Pacific typhoon while carrying a cargo of iron ore from Canada to Japan.


title: Oil tanker

text: Floating storage and offloading units (FSO) are used worldwide by the offshore oil industry to receive oil from nearby platforms and store it until it can be offloaded onto oil tankers. A similar system, the floating production storage and offloading unit (FPSO), has the ability to process the product while it is on board. These floating units reduce oil production costs and offer mobility, large storage capacity, and production versatility.


title: Oil tanker

text: FPSO and FSOs are often created out of old, stripped-down oil tankers, but can be made from new-built hulls; Shell España first used a tanker as an FPSO in August 1977. An example of an FSO that used to be an oil tanker is the "Knock Nevis". These units are usually moored to the seabed through a spread mooring system. A turret-style mooring system can be used in areas prone to severe weather. This turret system lets the unit rotate to minimize the effects of sea-swell and wind.


title: Oil tanker

text: Oil spills have devastating effects on the environment. Crude oil contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) which are very difficult to clean up, and last for years in the sediment and marine environment. Marine species constantly exposed to PAHs can exhibit developmental problems, susceptibility to disease, and abnormal reproductive cycles.


title: Oil tanker

text: By the sheer amount of oil carried, modern oil tankers can be a threat to the environment. As discussed above, a VLCC tanker can carry of crude oil. This is about eight times the amount spilled in the widely known "Exxon Valdez" incident. In this spill, the ship ran aground and dumped of oil into the ocean in March 1989. Despite efforts of scientists, managers, and volunteers over 400,000 seabirds, about 1,000 sea otters, and immense numbers of fish were killed. Considering the volume of oil carried by sea, however, tanker owners' organizations often argue that the industry's safety record is excellent, with only a tiny fraction of a percentage of oil cargoes carried ever being spilled. The International Association of Independent Tanker Owners has observed that "accidental oil spills this decade have been at record low levels—one third of the previous decade and one tenth of the 1970s—at a time when oil transported has more than doubled since the mid 1980s."


title: Oil tanker

text: Oil tankers are only one source of oil spills. According to the United States Coast Guard, 35.7% of the volume of oil spilled in the United States from 1991 to 2004 came from tank vessels (ships/barges), 27.6% from facilities and other non-vessels, 19.9% from non-tank vessels, 9.3% from pipelines, and 7.4% from mystery spills. Only 5% of the actual spills came from oil tankers, while 51.8% came from other kinds of vessels. The detailed statistics for 2004 show tank vessels responsible for somewhat less than 5% of the number of total spills but more than 60% of the volume. Tanker spills are much more rare and much more serious than spills from non-tank vessels.


title: Oil tanker

text: The International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation has tracked 9,351 accidental spills that have occurred since 1974. According to this study, most spills result from routine operations such as loading cargo, discharging cargo, and taking on fuel oil. 91% of the operational oil spills are small, resulting in less than 7 metric tons per spill. On the other hand, spills resulting from accidents like collisions, groundings, hull failures, and explosions are much larger, with 84% of these involving losses of over 700 metric tons.


title: Oil tanker

text: Following the "Exxon Valdez" spill, the United States passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA-90), which excluded single-hull tank vessels of 5,000 gross tons or more from US waters from 2010 onward, apart from those with a double bottom or double sides, which may be permitted to trade to the United States through 2015, depending on their age. Following the sinkings of (1999) and "Prestige" (2002), the European Union passed its own stringent anti-pollution packages (known as Erika I, II, and III), which also require all tankers entering its waters to be double-hulled by 2010. The Erika packages are controversial because they introduced the new legal concept of "serious negligence".


title: Oil tanker

text: Air pollution from engine operation and from cargo fires is another serious concern. Large ships are often run on low quality fuel oils, such as bunker oil, which is highly polluting and has been shown to be a health risk. Ship fires may result in the loss of the ship due to lack of specialized firefighting gear and techniques and fires can burn for days.


title: Maastricht

text: Maastricht ( , , ; ; ; ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the Meuse (), at the point where the Jeker joins it. Mount Saint Peter ("Sint-Pietersberg") is largely situated within the city's municipal borders. Maastricht is about 175 km south east of the capital Amsterdam and 65 km from Eindhoven; it is adjacent to the border with Belgium and is part of the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion, an international metropolis with a population of about 3.9 million, which includes the nearby German and Belgian cities of Aachen, Liège and Hasselt.


title: Maastricht

text: Maastricht developed from a Roman settlement ("Trajectum ad Mosam") to a medieval religious centre. In the 16th century it became a garrison town and in the 19th century an early industrial centre. Today, the city is a thriving cultural and regional hub. It became well known through the Maastricht Treaty and as the birthplace of the euro. Maastricht has 1677 national heritage buildings ("rijksmonumenten"), the second highest number in the Netherlands, after Amsterdam. The city is visited by tourists for shopping and recreation, and has a large international student population. In the rest of the Netherlands, the city is often seen as "foreign" mainly because of its distant peripheral location near Belgium and Germany but also its atypical culture and alleged "Burgundian lifestyle" (meaning: with good and plentiful food and beverage).


title: Maastricht

text: Maastricht is mentioned in ancient documents as "[Ad] Treiectinsem [urbem]" ab. 575, "Treiectensis" in 634, "Triecto", "Triectu" in 7th century, "Triiect" in 768–781, "Traiecto" in 945, "Masetrieth" in 1051.


title: Maastricht

text: The place name "Maastricht" is an Old Dutch compound "Masa-" (> "Maas" "the Meuse river") + Old Dutch "*treiekt", itself borrowed from Gallo-Romance cf. its Walloon name "li trek", from Classical Latin "trajectus" ("ford, passage, place to cross a river") with the later addition of "Maas" "Meuse" to avoid the confusion with the "-trecht" of Utrecht having exactly the same original form and etymology. The Latin name first appears in medieval documents and it is not known whether "" was Maastricht's name during Roman times. A resident of Maastricht is referred to as "Maastrichtenaar" whilst in the local dialect it is either "Mestreechteneer" or, colloquially, "Sjeng" (derived from the formerly popular French name "Jean").


title: Maastricht

text: Neanderthal remains have been found to the west of Maastricht (Belvédère excavations). Of a later date are Palaeolithic remains, between 8,000 and 25,000 years old. Celts lived here around 500 BC, at a spot where the river Meuse was shallow and therefore easy to cross.


title: Maastricht

text: It is not known when the Romans arrived in Maastricht, or whether the settlement was founded by them. The Romans built a bridge across the Meuse in the 1st century AD, during the reign of Augustus Caesar. The bridge was an important link in the main road between Bavay and Cologne. Roman Maastricht was probably relatively small. Remains of the Roman road, the bridge, a religious shrine, a Roman bath, a granary, some houses and the 4th-century castrum walls and gates, have been excavated. Fragments of provincial Roman sculptures, as well as coins, jewellery, glass, pottery and other objects from Roman Maastricht are on display in the exhibition space of the city's public library ("Centre Céramique").


title: Maastricht

text: According to legend, the Armenian-born Saint Servatius, Bishop of Tongeren, died in Maastricht in 384 where he was interred along the Roman road, outside the castrum. According to Gregory of Tours bishop Monulph was to have built around 570 the first stone church on the grave of Servatius, the present-day Basilica of Saint Servatius. The city remained an early Christian diocese until it lost the distinction to nearby Liège in the 8th or 9th century.


title: Maastricht

text: In the early Middle Ages Maastricht was part of the heartland of the Carolingian Empire along with Aachen and the area around Liège. The town was an important centre for trade and manufacturing. Merovingian coins minted in Maastricht have been found in places throughout Europe. In 881 the town was plundered by the Vikings. In the 10th century it briefly became the capital of the duchy of Lower Lorraine.


title: Maastricht

text: During the 12th century the town flourished culturally. The provosts of the church of Saint Servatius held important positions in the Holy Roman Empire during this era. The two collegiate churches were largely rebuilt and redecorated. Maastricht Romanesque stone sculpture and silversmithing are regarded as highlights of Mosan art. Maastricht painters were praised by Wolfram von Eschenbach in his Parzival. Around the same time, the poet Henric van Veldeke wrote a legend of Saint Servatius, one of the earliest works in Dutch literature. The two main churches acquired a wealth of relics and the septennial Maastricht Pilgrimage became a major event.


title: Maastricht

text: Unlike most Dutch towns, Maastricht did not receive city rights at a certain date. These developed gradually during its long history. In 1204 the city's dual authority was formalised in a treaty, with the prince-bishops of Liège and the dukes of Brabant holding joint sovereignty over the city. Soon afterwards the first ring of medieval walls were built. In 1275, the old Roman bridge collapsed under the weight of a procession, killing 400 people. A replacement, funded by church indulgences, was built slightly to the north and survives until today, the Sint Servaasbrug.


title: Maastricht

text: Throughout the Middle Ages, the city remained a centre for trade and manufacturing principally of wool and leather but gradually economic decline set in. After a brief period of economic prosperity around 1500, the city's economy suffered during the wars of religion of the 16th and 17th centuries, and recovery did not happen until the industrial revolution in the early 19th century.


title: Maastricht

text: The important strategic location of Maastricht resulted in the construction of an impressive array of fortifications around the city during this period. The Spanish and Dutch garrisons became an important factor in the city's economy. In 1579 the city was sacked by the Spanish army led by the Duke of Parma (Siege of Maastricht, 1579). For over fifty years the Spanish crown took over the role previously held by the dukes of Brabant in the joint sovereignty over Maastricht. In 1632 the city was conquered by Prince Frederick Henry of Orange and the Dutch States General replaced the Spanish crown in the joint government of Maastricht.


title: Maastricht

text: Another Siege of Maastricht (1673) took place during the Franco-Dutch War. In June 1673, Louis XIV laid siege to the city because French supply lines were being threatened. During this siege, Vauban, the famous French military engineer, developed a new tactic in order to break down the strong fortifications surrounding Maastricht. His systematic approach remained the standard method of attacking fortresses until the 20th century. On 25 June 1673, while preparing to storm the city, captain-lieutenant Charles de Batz de Castelmore, also known as the "comte d'Artagnan", was killed by a musket shot outside the Tongerse Poort. This event was embellished in Alexandre Dumas' novel "The Vicomte de Bragelonne", part of the D'Artagnan Romances. French troops occupied Maastricht from 1673 to 1678.


title: Maastricht

text: In 1748 the French again conquered the city at what is known as the Second French Siege of Maastricht, during the War of Austrian Succession. The French took the city for the last time in 1794, when the condominium was dissolved and Maastricht was annexed to the First French Empire (1794–1814). For twenty years Maastricht remained the capital of the French département of Meuse-Inférieure.


title: Maastricht

text: After the Napoleonic era, Maastricht became part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815. It was made the capital of the newly formed Province of Limburg (1815–1839). When the southern provinces of the newly formed kingdom seceded in 1830, the Dutch garrison in Maastricht remained loyal to the Dutch king, William I, even when most of the inhabitants of the town and the surrounding area sided with the Belgian revolutionaries. In 1831, arbitration by the Great Powers allocated the city to the Netherlands. However, neither the Dutch nor the Belgians agreed to this and the arrangement was not implemented until the 1839 Treaty of London. During this period of isolation Maastricht developed into an early industrial town.


title: Maastricht

text: Because of its eccentric location in the southeastern Netherlands, and its geographical and cultural proximity to Belgium and Germany, integration of Maastricht and Limburg into the Netherlands did not come about easily. Maastricht retained a distinctly non-Dutch appearance during much of the 19th century and it was not until the First World War that the city was forced to look northwards.


title: Maastricht

text: Like the rest of the Netherlands, Maastricht remained neutral during World War I. However, being wedged between Germany and Belgium, it received large numbers of refugees, putting a strain on the city's resources. Early in World War II, the city was taken by the Germans by surprise during the Battle of Maastricht of May 1940. On 13 and 14 September 1944 it was the first Dutch city to be liberated by Allied forces of the US Old Hickory Division. The three Meuse bridges were destroyed or severely damaged during the war. As elsewhere in the Netherlands, the majority of Maastricht Jews died in Nazi concentration camps.


title: Maastricht

text: During the latter half of the century, traditional industries (such as Maastricht's potteries) declined and the city's economy shifted to a service economy. Maastricht University was founded in 1976. Several European institutions found their base in Maastricht. In 1981 and 1991 European Councils were held in Maastricht, the latter one resulting a year later in the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, leading to the creation of the European Union and the euro. Since 1988, The European Fine Art Fair, regarded as the world's leading art fair, annually draws in some of the wealthiest art collectors.


title: Maastricht

text: In recent years, Maastricht launched several campaigns against drug-dealing in an attempt to stop foreign buyers taking advantage of the liberal Dutch legislation and causing trouble in the downtown area.


title: Maastricht

text: Since the 1990s, large parts of the city have been refurbished, including the areas around the main railway station and the Maasboulevard promenade along the Meuse, the Entre Deux and Mosae Forum shopping centres, as well as some of the main shopping streets. A prestigious quarter designed by international architects and including the new Bonnefanten Museum, a public library, and a theatre was built on the grounds of the former Société Céramique factory near the town centre. Further large-scale projects, such as the redevelopment of the area around the A2 motorway, the Sphinx Quarter and the Belvédère area are under construction.


title: Maastricht

text: Maastricht consists of five districts ("stadsdelen") and 44 neighbourhoods ("wijken"). Each neighbourhood has a number which corresponds to its postal code.


title: Maastricht

text: The neighbourhoods of Itteren, Borgharen, Limmel, Amby, Heer, Heugem, Scharn, Oud-Caberg, Sint Pieter and Wolder all used to be separate municipalities or villages until they were annexed by the city of Maastricht in the course of the 20th century.


title: Maastricht

text: The outlying areas of the following municipalities are bordering the municipality of Maastricht directly.


title: Maastricht

text: Maastricht's city limits has an international border with Belgium. Most of it borders Belgium's Flemish region, but a small part to the south also has a border with Wallonia. Both countries are part of Europe's Schengen Area thus are open without border controls.


title: Maastricht

text: Maastricht features the same climate as most of the Netherlands ("Cfb", Oceanic climate), however, due to its more inland location in between hills, summers tend to be warmer (especially in the Meuse valley, which lies 70 metres lower than the meteorological station) and winters a bit colder, although the difference is only noticeable on just a few days a year. The highest temperature recorded was on 25 July 2019 at .


title: Maastricht

text: Maastricht is a city of linguistic diversity, partly as a result of its location at the crossroads of multiple language areas and its international student population.


title: Maastricht

text: In 2010–2014, 69.8% of the population of Maastricht regarded themselves as religious. 60.4% of the total population stated an affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church. 13.9% attended a religious ceremony at least once a month.


title: Maastricht

text: Since the 1980s, a number of European and international institutions have made Maastricht their base. They provide an increasing number of employment opportunities for expats living in the Maastricht area.


title: Maastricht

text: Maastricht is known in the Netherlands and beyond for its lively squares, narrow streets, and historic buildings. The city has 1,677 national heritage buildings ("rijksmonumenten"), more than any Dutch city outside Amsterdam. In addition to that there are 3,500 locally listed buildings ("gemeentelijke monumenten"). The entire city centre is a conservation area ("beschermd stadsgezicht") and largely traffic-free. The tourist information office (VVV) is located in the basement of Dinghuis, a late-medieval courthouse overlooking Grote Staat.


title: Maastricht

text: Furthermore, the Maastricht Exposition and Congress Centre (MECC) hosts many events throughout the year.


title: Maastricht

text: The municipal government of Maastricht consists of a city council, a mayor and a number of aldermen. The city council, a 39-member legislative body directly elected for four years, appoints the aldermen on the basis of a coalition agreement between two or more parties after each election. The 2006 municipal elections in the Netherlands were, as often, dominated by national politics and led to a shift from right to left throughout the country. In Maastricht, the traditional broad governing coalition of Christian Democrats (CDA), Labour (PvdA), Greens (GreenLeft) and Liberals (VVD) was replaced by a centre-left coalition of Labour, Christian Democrats and Greens. Two Labour aldermen were appointed, along with one Christian Democrat and one Green alderman. Due to internal disagreements, one of the VVD council members left the party in 2005 and formed a new liberal group in 2006 (Liberalen Maastricht). The other opposition parties in the current city council are the Socialist Party (SP), the Democrats (D66) and two local parties (Stadsbelangen Mestreech (SBM) and the Seniorenpartij).


title: Maastricht

text: The aldermen and the mayor make up the executive branch of the municipal government. After the previous mayor, Gerd Leers (CDA), decided to step down in January 2010 following the 'Bulgarian Villa' affair, an affair concerning a holiday villa project in Byala, Bulgaria, in which the mayor was alleged to have been involved in shady deals to raise the value of villas he had ownership of. Up until 1 July 2015 the mayor of Maastricht was Onno Hoes, a Liberal (VVD), the only male mayor in the country, who officially was married to a male person. In 2013 Hoes was the subject of some political commotion, after facts had been disclosed about intimate affairs with several other male persons. The affair had no consequences for his political career. Because of a new affair in 2014 Hoes eventually stepped down.


title: Maastricht

text: Since 1 July 2015 the current mayor of Maastricht has been Annemarie Penn-te Strake. Penn is independent and serves no political party, although her husband is a former chairman of the Maastricht Seniorenpartij. She has served for the Dutch judicial system for many years in many different positions. During her tenure as mayor she still serves as attorney general.


title: Maastricht

text: One controversial issue which has dominated Maastricht politics for many years and which has also affected national and international politics, is the city's approach to soft drugs. Under the pragmatic Dutch soft drug policy, a policy of non-enforcement, individuals may buy and use cannabis from 'coffeeshops' (cannabis bars) under certain conditions. Maastricht, like many other border towns, has seen a growing influx of 'drug tourists', mainly young people from Belgium, France and Germany, who provide a large amount of revenue for the coffeeshops (around 13) in the city centre. The city government, most notably ex-mayor Leers, have been actively promoting drug policy reform in order to deal with its negative side effects.


title: Maastricht

text: One of the proposals, known as the 'Coffee Corner Plan', proposed by then-mayor Leers and supported unanimously by the city council in 2008, was to relocate the coffeeshops from the city centre to the outskirts of the town (in some cases near the national Dutch-Belgian border). The purpose of this plan was to reduce the impact of drug tourism on the city centre, such as parking problems and the illegal sale of hard drugs in the vicinity of the coffeeshops, and to monitor the sale and use of cannabis more closely in areas away from the crowded city centre. The Coffee Corner Plan, however, has met with fierce opposition from neighbouring municipalities (some in Belgium) and from members of the Dutch and Belgian parliament. The plan has been the subject of various legal challenges and has not been carried out up to this date (2014).


title: Maastricht

text: On 16 December 2010, the Court of Justice of the European Union upheld a local Maastricht ban on the sale of cannabis to foreign tourists, restricting entrance to coffeeshops to residents of Maastricht. The ban did not affect scientific or medical usage. In 2011, the Dutch government introduced a similar national system, the "wietpas" ("cannabis pass"), restricting access to Dutch coffeeshops to residents of the Netherlands. After protests from local mayors about the difficulty of implementing the issuing of wietpasses, Dutch parliament in 2012 agreed to replace the pass by any proof of residency. The new system has led to a slight reduction in drug tourism to cannabis shops in Maastricht but at the same time to an increase of drug dealing on the street.


title: Maastricht

text: Maastricht is served by the A2 and A79 motorways. The city can be reached from Brussels and Cologne in approximately one hour and from Amsterdam in about two and a half hours.


title: Maastricht

text: The A2 motorway runs through Maastricht in a double-decked tunnel. Before 2016, the A2 motorway ran through the city; heavily congested, it caused air pollution in the urban area. Construction of a two-level tunnel designed to solve these problems started in 2011 and was opened (in stages) by December 2016.


title: Maastricht

text: In spite of several large underground car parks, parking in the city centre forms a major problem during weekends and bank holidays because of the large numbers of visitors. Parking fees are deliberately high to encourage visitors to use public transport or park and ride facilities away from the centre.


title: Maastricht

text: Maastricht is served by three rail operators, all of which call at the main Maastricht railway station near the centre and two of which call at the smaller Maastricht Randwyck, near the business and university district. Only Arriva also calls at Maastricht Noord, which opened in 2013. Intercity trains northwards to Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Den Bosch and Utrecht are operated by Dutch Railways. The line to Heerlen, Valkenburg and Kerkrade is operated by Arriva. The National Railway Company of Belgium runs south to Liège in Belgium. The westbound railway to Hasselt (Belgium) closed in 1954. The former railway to Aachen was closed down in the 1980s. However, Aachen can still be reached via Heerlen.


title: Maastricht

text: Regular bus lines connect the city centre, outer areas, business districts and railway stations. The regional Arriva bus network extends to most parts of South Limburg and Aachen (Germany). Regional buses by De Lijn connect Maastricht with Hasselt, Tongeren and Maasmechelen, and one bus connects Maastricht with Liège, operated by TEC. Various bus companies such as Flixbus and Eurolines provide intercity bus services from Maastricht to many European destinations.


title: Maastricht

text: Maastricht is served by the nearby Maastricht Aachen Airport , in nearby Beek, and it is informally referred to by that name. The airport is located about north of the city centre. The airport is served by Corendon Dutch Airlines and Ryanair which operate scheduled flights to destinations around the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands, North-Africa and also London Stansted Airport from March 2022. There are also charter flights to Lourdes which are operated by Enter Air.


title: Maastricht

text: Maastricht has a river port ("Beatrixhaven") and is connected by water with Belgium and the rest of the Netherlands through the river Meuse, the Juliana Canal, the Albert Canal and the Zuid-Willemsvaart. Although there are no regular boat connections to other cities, various organized boat trips for tourists connect Maastricht with Belgium cities such as Liège.


title: Maastricht

text: In 2002 the municipal government officially adopted a local anthem (Limburgish (Maastrichtian variant): "Mestreechs Volksleed", ) composed of lyrics in Maastrichtian. The theme was originally written by Ciprian Porumbescu (1853–1883).


title: Parachutes (Coldplay album)

text: Parachutes is the debut studio album by the British rock band Coldplay. It was released on 10 July 2000 by Parlophone in the United Kingdom. The album was produced by the band and British record producer Ken Nelson, except for one track, "High Speed", which was produced by Chris Allison. "Parachutes" has spawned the singles "Shiver", "Yellow", "Trouble", and "Don't Panic".


title: Parachutes (Coldplay album)

text: The album was a commercial success and was met with positive reviews. Upon release, it quickly reached number one in the United Kingdom and has since been certified 9× Platinum. In the United States, the album peaked at number 51 on the "Billboard" 200 and eventually was certified Double Platinum. It won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 2002, the British Album of the Year award at the 2001 Brit Awards and many other accolades. "Parachutes" is also the 22nd-best-selling album of the 21st century in the United Kingdom. As of 2020, it has sold over 13 million copies worldwide.


title: Parachutes (Coldplay album)

text: The band began production on "Parachutes" in late 1999, after producing & releasing "The Blue Room EP" with British record producer Chris Allison. Allison was asked to assist with production, and the band's musical direction, which was desired by both the band & the A&R department. Production started with the track 'High Speed', which was part of the EP and was later re-released as a part of "Parachutes". Allison describes 'High Speed' as thus: 'You'll notice it is quite a bit different to the other tracks, because there are other sounds going on in it: we wanted to mix a soundscape in with the classic rock sound on that particular track. I thought 'High Speed' was a really good marriage between the classic rock sound and the new sound that was developing out of it, something that was more atmospheric'. Seven tracks in all were recorded during the sessions at Orinoco studios in London, with three of them ending up on "The Blue Room EP".


title: Parachutes (Coldplay album)

text: The band then took a lengthy break to compose more tracks for "Parachutes". A few months later, it was arranged that Allison and the band meet at a rehearsal room to finally begin production on the band's debut album. "They started up playing in the rehearsal room and they really weren't together at all. And I was very honest with them, I just sort of said 'Look, this simply isn't good enough'". Allison adds, "The interesting, the most significant thing that did occur out of the fact that we didn't end up starting the album on that day of the rehearsal was that Chris Martin had not written "Yellow" by that time".


title: Parachutes (Coldplay album)

text: A couple of months later, British record producer Ken Nelson was chosen, producing all but one song on "Parachutes". He was introduced to Coldplay by his manager Pete Byrne (who gave him a copy of the band's Fierce Panda-distributed debut single in 1999). Nelson has claimed that, as soon as he heard vocalist Chris Martin's voice on the song "Bigger Stronger", he "realised that he was something special". Nelson was offered the job while Coldplay were performing in Liverpool with English indie rock band Gomez (whose debut album, "Bring It On", was what he had produced at the time).


title: Parachutes (Coldplay album)

text: Coldplay initially planned to record "Parachutes" in the space of two weeks. However, tours and other live performances caused the recording to spread out between September 1999 and May 2000. The band began work on the album at Rockfield Studios in Wales, continuing with sessions at Liverpool's Parr Street Studios. The band worked in three studio rooms at Parr Street, mostly in the project studio which producer Ken Nelson describes as "basically a demo room". The Chris Allison-produced track "High Speed" was also included on the album, and originates from earlier sessions at Orinoco Studios in London. The album was mixed by American engineer Michael Brauer in New York. Coldplay's record label, Parlophone, had originally intended to use a mixing engineer for the tracks they picked as singles, but eventually hired Brauer to work on all songs on "Parachutes" except the song "High Speed" which was mixed by Chris Allison.


title: Parachutes (Coldplay album)

text: At the Liverpool concert where he was offered the production job, Nelson had noted that Coldplay's performance was "very very uptight [...] they rushed through the set and it was quite difficult to listen to". Once in the studio Nelson and the band went through each song, learning how to play the piece live and deciding what tempo to play it at in an attempt to get the group to "calm down" ("Trouble", for example, had to be reworked to eliminate the cacophony included in its early versions).


title: Parachutes (Coldplay album)

text: The album's cover features a photograph of a yellow globe taken with a disposable Kodak camera. The globe had been purchased from W H Smith for £10; it was featured in the music videos for "Shiver" and "Don't Panic", and also accompanied the band on their tours. The album was dedicated to drummer Will Champion's mother, Sara Champion, who died of cancer in May 2000, two months before the release of "Parachutes".


title: Parachutes (Coldplay album)

text: Champion has explained that Nelson's production style was liberating and allowed the band to feel at ease during the recording of "Parachutes" (many songs from the album often featured slow tempos). The ensuing album was "a record's worth of moody and atmospheric tunes". As a nod to the moods created by the album, Champion has compared the song lyrics to the 1972 song "Perfect Day" by American rock singer-songwriter Lou Reed, stating that the "lyrics are beautiful and they're really, really happy, but the music is really, really sad. It's that kind of thing, where you can create [differing] moods through the music and lyrics."


title: Parachutes (Coldplay album)

text: "Parachutes" was recognised to have an alternative rock, post-Britpop, and pop rock, with some stylistic comparisons being made to contemporaries such as Radiohead and Travis. In fact, a few critics have suggested that the album's commercial success was due in part to a portion of Radiohead's audience being alienated by the band's experimental and more electronic-influenced "Kid A" album.


title: Parachutes (Coldplay album)

text: "Parachutes" was released on 10 July 2000 in the United Kingdom by Parlophone. In the United States, it was released on 7 November 2000 by the record label Nettwerk. The album has been made available on various formats since its release: both Parlophone and Nettwerk released it as a CD in 2000, while in the next year "Parachutes" enjoyed a cassette release made by newfound label Capitol Records. In 2002, Parlophone issued the album as an LP. In November 2020, Coldplay released a 20th anniversary version in transparent yellow vinyl.


title: Parachutes (Coldplay album)

text: The main version of the record contains 10 tracks, with "Everything's Not Lost", the last of them, having a hidden song called "Life Is for Living", clocking in for a total of 7:15. The Japanese version contains all main tracks, plus "Careful Where You Stand" and "For You", which were originally released as the B-sides of "Shiver", the hidden song is on the pre-gap of track 11.


title: Parachutes (Coldplay album)

text: Four singles were released in total: "Shiver", "Yellow", "Trouble", and "Don't Panic". The first served as lead single in the United Kingdom while "Yellow" was used in the United States. Upon the release of "Trouble", Coldplay abandoned their initial plan of releasing "Don't Panic" as the album's fourth effort, since they deemed three singles were enough for an album. Despite this, however, it was released as a single in some European regions.


title: Parachutes (Coldplay album)

text: Following their first ever performance at The Laurel Tree as Starfish, Coldplay embarked on a string of concerts between 1998 and 1999 which included their Glastonbury Festival debut. The shows from the latter year were mostly launched in support of "The Blue Room EP" and held in partnership with Icelandic band Bellatrix. Tickets were available for £3.


title: Parachutes (Coldplay album)

text: The Parachutes Tour was then announced in 2000 with Lowgold serving as their supporting act in the United Kingdom. Coldplay visited small venues and festivals across Europe, North America and Oceania, while one-off shows in Japan and Singapore were held as well. According to "Billboard", the 2001 shows grossed an average of $52,743 from 2,507 tickets sold per date. In total, the tour grossed $4,201,871 from 262,140 tickets in 167 reported dates.


title: Parachutes (Coldplay album)

text: "Parachutes" was released to generally favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 72, based on 20 reviews. In a contemporary review of the album, Michael Hubbard of musicOMH called it "an album of remarkable depth, especially when one considers the youthful ages of the band members." Siobhan Grogan of "NME" stated that "all told, it's incredible this is a debut album" and concluded that "accomplished, yet subtle, it works perfectly as a whole in a way all the production skills in the world couldn't replicate." "Melody Maker" hailed "Parachutes" as a "masterpiece" and "a defining musical statement of 2000", while James Oldham of "Uncut" felt that the album "more than justifies the plaudits heaped upon [the band] by the weekly music press". "The Guardian" described the album as "one of the year's most uplifting albums", adding that it features "elegant songs, classic guitars and gorgeous singing".


title: Parachutes (Coldplay album)

text: While noting that "Parachutes" "brings nothing new to the table" and that its "musical reference points are immediately recognizable and difficult to overlook", "Billboard" stated that the band "seems talented enough to transcend this early identity crisis." Matt Diehl of "Rolling Stone" opined that the album "ultimately rises above its influences to become a work of real transcendence". In a retrospective write-up, MacKenzie Wilson of AllMusic commented that "Parachutes" introduced the band as "young musicians still honing their sweet harmonies", adding that the album "deserved the accolades it received because it followed the general rule when introducing decent pop songs: keep the emotion genuine and real."


title: Parachutes (Coldplay album)

text: In a less-enthusiastic review, Spencer Owen of "Pitchfork" called the album "harmless and pretty... [but] nothing else". Barry Walters, writing in "The Village Voice", similarly writes that "there's little on "Parachutes" that demands attention or punctures the pensive spell, and, unlike Travis's, Coldplay's hooks are slight." In his Consumer Guide column for "The Village Voice", Robert Christgau selected "Yellow" and "Don't Panic" as "choice cuts", indicating good songs on "an album that isn't worth your time or money." Setareh Yousefi of "Stylus Magazine" felt that "the finer moments of "Parachutes" are blended with some boring sappy songs", with Martin's "powerful voice" ultimately being "in many ways wasted on songs that are alright but not bewildering."


title: Parachutes (Coldplay album)

text: The popularity of the songs in British clubs, pubs and sporting events led "Parachutes" to debut at number-one in the UK Albums Chart with 70,935 copies sold. Its biggest sales period, however, was during the penultimate week of 2000, when the album sold 170,642 copies and surpassed one million total sales. The record is certified 9× Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry for selling over 2,700,000 copies. In July 2011, it climbed from number 184 to number 48 for a 318th charting week. As of January 2018, the album remains Coldplay's third biggest in the country, behind "A Rush of Blood to the Head" (2.9 million) and "X&Y" (2.7 million). In 2022 Parachutes was named as the 10th most successful debut album in UK chart history.


title: Parachutes (Coldplay album)

text: "Parachutes" has reached number 51 on the US "Billboard" 200, and has peaked at number one on the "Billboard" Heatseekers. Over two million copies have been shipped to the United States, leading to being certified 2× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. It has also been certified 3× Platinum in Australia by the Australian Recording Industry Association, and 2× Platinum in Canada by the Canadian Recording Industry Association. As of July 2020, "Parachutes" has sold 31,922 copies on cassette in UK, making it the 33rd best-selling cassette since 2000.


title: Parachutes (Coldplay album)

text: With nearly 2.7 million units sold in the United Kingdom, "Parachutes" is the 22nd best-selling album of the 21st century and 45th of all-time in the country. It was also shortlisted for the 2000 Mercury Music Prize and the overall era earned the band many awards, including British Album of the Year at the Brit Awards, Best Album at the "Q" Awards and Best Alternative Music Album at the Grammy Awards.


title: Parachutes (Coldplay album)

text: British trade paper "Music Week", praised it as one of the most-impressive debut albums ever, spawning the hit singles "Shiver", "Trouble" and "Yellow", with the latter getting included in Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll" list for being one of the most successful and important recordings in music. In 2010, "Parachutes" was placed in the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". In 2013, "NME" ranked it at number 272 on their "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.


title: Parachutes (Coldplay album)

text: While making a 20th anniversary review, Jon O' Brien from the Recording Academy labeled it as Coldplay's most influential album to date, impacting on the work of artists such as The Fray, Snow Patrol and OneRepublic. He also mentioned that "Parachutes" "ushered in a new wave of mild-mannered guitar bands". Despite the album's success, Chris Martin said that the band doesn't like it. He also commented that they look beyond: "We know that's terrible music and we always try to think about what we can do next."


title: Donna Troy

text: Donna Troy is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. She is the original Wonder Girl and later temporarily adopts another identity, Troia. Created by Bob Haney and Bruno Premiani, she first appeared in "The Brave and the Bold" #60 (July 1965). Donna has been commonly featured in stories involving the Teen Titans, which she originally joined during their second adventure and is since depicted as a founding member of the team.


title: Donna Troy

text: Donna has appeared in numerous cartoon television shows and films. She makes her live adaptation debut in the DC Universe and HBO Max series "Titans", played by Conor Leslie in the first, second, and third seasons.


title: Donna Troy

text: In May 1947's "Wonder Woman " #23 written by William Moulton Marston and illustrated by Harry G. Peter, the titular heroine (also known as Diana) is shown in flashback having adventures as a little girl. Twelve years later in April 1959's "Wonder Woman" #105, writer Robert Kanigher reprised the formula, this time featuring a flashback tale of Wonder Woman when she was a teen. Playfully dubbed "Wonder Girl" by another character, this teenaged version would return several times in flashback stories over the next several years, paralleling similar exploits of Superboy, the teen persona of DC Comics’ flagship hero Superman. After the shake-up in the comics industry caused by Fredric Wertham's "Seduction of the Innocent," DC Comics sought to make the adventures of Wonder Woman appear more wholesome and family-friendly. The result was August 1961's "Wonder Woman" #124 (also by Kanigher and Andru), which kicked-off a series of out-of-continuity "Impossible Tales" in which Wonder Woman appeared alongside the teen "Wonder Girl" version of herself, as well as a toddler version called "Wonder Tot", and her mother Queen Hippolyta, creating a "Wonder Family". By "Wonder Woman" #150 (November 1964) the "Impossible Tale" label was retired, though Wonder Girl continued as a regular fixture in the publication, both side by side with Wonder Woman as well as in her own solo stories, through #155 (July 1965). During this curious 5-issue period, Wonder Girl is no longer referred to as an "impossible" younger variant of Wonder Woman, however no other in-story cues explaining her existence are provided. This looser narrative identification allowed her a new status as an entity entirely distinct from Wonder Woman, a character unto herself. Though Wonder Girl and Wonder Woman do not directly call one another "sister" in these issues, Hippolyta does refer to them as her daughters, and all three repeatedly identify themselves as a family. Additionally, Wonder Girl is temporarily promoted to the book's headliner, receiving three full-length solo stories, including top-billing with her own logo predominating Wonder Woman's on the covers of issues #152 and #153.


title: Donna Troy

text: July 1965 was a significant and somewhat puzzling month in the history of Wonder Girl, concluding her regular presence in the "Wonder Woman" comic book with issue #155 while simultaneously seeing her appear as a member of the newly-formed Teen Titans in "The Brave and the Bold" #60, written by Bob Haney and illustrated by Bruno Premiani. Though "The Brave and the Bold" #60 is commonly accepted as Donna Troy's debut, the Wonder Girl it depicts is indistinguishable from the Wonder Girl appearing synchronously that month in "Wonder Woman" #155 – the same Wonder Girl featured regularly in that book during the preceding 6 years who was, at least until issue #150 and possibly after, a de-aged, out-of-continuity Wonder Woman.


title: Donna Troy

text: The Teen Titans were a "junior Justice League" consisting of Robin (Dick Grayson), Kid Flash (Wally West), and Aqualad (Garth), the sidekicks of Batman, the Flash, and Aquaman respectively. Wonder Girl would establish herself as a central character in Teen Titans stories, continuing to appear with the team in December 1965's "Showcase" #59 and in their spinoff into the first volume of the monthly "Teen Titans" in January 1966. However, no narrative information regarding Wonder Girl's precise identity was provided in any of her earliest appearances with the Titans, nor in the first 21 issues of the team's subsequent monthly comic book. It would not be until July 1969's "Teen Titans" #22 that Wonder Girl would be unequivocally identified as Wonder Woman's younger sister, a discrete character with her own identity: Donna Troy. Writer Marv Wolfman established that Donna had been rescued from an apartment fire as an infant by Wonder Woman. Unable to find the baby's birth family, Wonder Woman brings her to Paradise Island to be raised by her mother Hippolyta, eventually enlisting the Amazon scientist Paula (herself an expatriate from "Man's World") to use advanced technology to grant the girl powers like Wonder Woman's.


title: Donna Troy

text: Donna remains with the Teen Titans until the series' cancellation with issue #43 in February 1973. She is still part of the team when the comic picks up again with #44 in November 1976. "Teen Titans" is canceled again in February 1978 with issue #53, with Donna and the others, no longer "teens", going their separate ways.


title: Donna Troy

text: Marv Wolfman and George Pérez revived the series yet again in 1980 as "The New Teen Titans", with original members Wonder Girl, Robin, and Kid Flash joined by new heroes Raven, Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy / Changeling. Donna is romantically involved with much older professor Terry Long, but along the way is put under the romantic spell of Hyperion, one of the Titans of Myth.


title: Donna Troy

text: Donna's origin is expanded in the January 1984 tale, "Who is Donna Troy?" Robin investigates the events surrounding the long ago fire after finding Donna's doll in a box from a coal bin. He learns that Donna's birth mother was Dorothy Hinckley, a dying unwed teen who had placed her for adoption. After Donna's adoptive father Carl Stacey had been killed in a work-related accident, her adoptive mother Fay Stacey was forced to place her for adoption again, unable to raise the toddler because of mounting expenses. However, Donna became victim to a child-selling racket, which ended with the racketeers' deaths in a furnace explosion and the fire. With Robin's help, Donna is reunited with Fay, who had married Hank Evans and given birth to two additional children, Cindy and Jerry. Donna marries Terry Long in a huge, lavish ceremony in "Tales of the Teen Titans" #50 (February 1985).


title: Donna Troy

text: The subsequent "Crisis on Infinite Earths" miniseries (1985–1986) rewrote the history of many DC Comics characters; Wonder Woman's own pre-"Crisis" history was written out of existence, and the character was reintroduced in "Wonder Woman" (vol. 2) #1 (February 1987) as a new arrival from Themyscira (the former Paradise Island). With the character of Donna tied predominantly to the Titans, her origin was retconned to fit into the new continuity created by Wonder Woman's relaunch, one severing her direct ties to the Amazons. In the storyline "Who is Wonder Girl?" featured in "The New Titans" #50–54 (December 1988–March 1989), the Titans of Myth enlist Donna's aid against the murderous Sparta of Synriannaq. It is revealed that the Titan Rhea had rescued a young Donna from a fire; Donna and Sparta had then been part of a group of 12 orphans from around the universe who had been raised on New Cronus by these Titans as "Titan Seeds", their eventual saviors.


title: Donna Troy

text: The Seeds had been given superhuman powers, and named after ancient Greek cities. Called "Troy", Donna (like the others) had eventually been stripped of her memories of her time with the Titans of Myth, and reintroduced into humankind to await her destiny; Sparta had retained her memories, and the knowledge had eventually driven her mad. Killing her fellow Seeds to "collect" their powers and destroy the Titans of Myth, Sparta is ultimately defeated by Donna and the only other Seed left alive, Athyns of Karakkan. In "The New Titans" #55 (June 1989), Donna changes her identity from Wonder Girl to Troia and adopts a new hairstyle and costume incorporating mystical gifts from the Titans of Myth.


title: Donna Troy

text: During the "Titans Hunt" storyline, Donna discovers she is pregnant; in "The New Titans" Annual #7 (1991), a group calling themselves the Team Titans appears, intent on killing her. They come from a future in which Donna's son is born with the full powers of a god and full awareness of them, which drives him mad. He instantly ages himself, kills his mother, and becomes a dictator known as Lord Chaos. The Team Titans travel back to the past to kill Donna before her son can be born. Donna eventually gives birth to Robert; to prevent him from becoming Lord Chaos, she sacrifices her powers and becomes a normal human.


title: Donna Troy

text: Eventually, Donna rethinks her decision and asks the Titans of Myth to grant her powers again; her request is rejected. She then joins the Darkstars. During the Zero Hour crisis, her farm in New Jersey is destroyed and all the Team Titans are wiped out of existence except for Terra and Mirage. Her marriage in ruins, Donna loses custody of her son to her now ex-husband Terry. Donna rejoins the New Titans for a time, with her Darkstar suit giving her the ability to aid them. She dates Kyle Rayner for a while and retires from the Darkstars, leaving her powerless. Donna and Kyle break up immediately following the death of her son, stepdaughter and ex-husband in a car accident.


title: Donna Troy

text: Her post-Crisis origin was updated in the late 1990s. This version had it that she was originally created by the Amazon sorceress Magala as a magical duplicate of the young Princess Diana of Themyscira (a nod to the original Wonder Girl) to be a playmate for Diana, who was previously the only child on the island. However, Donna was soon kidnapped by the Dark Angel (a World War II villainess and sworn enemy of Queen Hippolyta, Diana's mother), who thought the girl was Diana.


title: Donna Troy

text: Dark Angel cursed Donna to live endless variants of a life characterized by suffering, with her life being restarted and erased from the world's memory when Donna was at her lowest. Even Donna would forget her past lives until the moment at which Dark Angel would arrive to restart her life, at which point she would immediately recall all of her past suffering. With the help of Wonder Woman, Hippolyta, and the third Flash (her former Titans teammate, Wally West), the only people who remembered the previous version, Donna was restored. Somehow, she also regained her powers, presumably because that was how Wally remembered her. Initially, she was concerned that she was not the "same" Donna, but an idealized form based on Wally's memories. She has since accepted that this is not the case.


title: Donna Troy

text: Shortly afterwards, the Titans gathered together to save their friend Cyborg. They came into conflict with the JLA, but they saved their friend. During this incident Donna was seemingly reunited with her son via virtual reality, but with the aid of Nightwing, realized it was not real. After that, the original five Teen Titans, including Troia, decided to reform the team. A subsequent battle with Dark Angel suggested her constant rewriting of Donna's history involved Hypertime. It is not clear how this ties in with later revelations.


title: Donna Troy

text: Realizing that Donna was created from a portion of Diana's soul, Queen Hippolyta accepted Donna as a blood-related daughter and held a coronation on Themyscira to formally introduce Donna as the second princess of Paradise Island. This aspect brought Donna more in-line with her Pre-Crisis Themyscirian origins. After her coronation, Donna and Diana's bond as sisters grew stronger. The two Amazons shared a high end apartment in New York City and Donna became more active in life on Themyscira. While the Amazons of Bana-Mighdall saw Diana as an official moderator between the Themyscirian Amazons and themselves, Donna made strides in becoming an accepted member of both tribes in their eyes. While aiding the Amazons, Donna also came into contact with the villain Angle Man who immediately became enamored with her. After their awkward yet flirtatious first meeting, a seriously wounded Angle Man later teleported himself to Donna seeking her help after being attacked by The Cheetah.


title: Donna Troy

text: In a separate battle, Donna was apparently killed by a rogue Superman robot in the Titans/Young Justice crossover , but was later shown to be alive on another world. "The Return of Donna Troy", a four-issue miniseries written by Phil Jimenez with art by José Luis García-López and George Pérez, expanded upon the resurrection of Donna Troy and cleared up her multiple origins.


title: Donna Troy

text: Donna Troy has now discovered that like every other person after the Crisis on Infinite Earths, she is a merger of every alternate version of Donna Troy in the Multiverse. Unlike everyone else, Donna is the repository of knowledge of every alternate universe version of herself and remembers the original Multiverse. She learned that her counterpart on Earth-Two was saved by a firefighter and was raised in an orphanage, while her Earth-S counterpart died in the fire. She also discovered that her sworn enemy of the past, Dark Angel, was in fact the Donna Troy of Earth-Seven, saved from certain death by the Anti-Monitor, just like the Monitor had saved Harbinger. When the Multiverse was reconfigured in one single Universe, Dark Angel, who had somehow escaped the compression of every Donna Troy into one single person in the new Earth, sought to kill her (every life she forced her to relive was in fact an aspect of an alternate Donna as a way to avoid the merging and remain the last one standing). When she was defeated, Donna became the real sum of every Donna Troy that existed on every Earth, a living key to the lost Multiverse.


title: Donna Troy

text: Her role in "Infinite Crisis" is, at the end of "The Return of Donna Troy", fully stated: Donna had been reborn after her death at the hands of the Superman android. The Titans of Myth, realizing that she was the child who was destined to save them from some impending threat, brought her to New Cronus and implanted false memories within her mind to make her believe she was the original Goddess of the Moon and wife of Coeus. The Titans of Myth incited war between other worlds near New Cronus in order to gain new worshipers. They would then use the combined power of their collective faith to open a passageway into another reality, where they would be safe from destruction. Donna was another means to that end until she was found by the Titans and the Outsiders, who restored her true memories. This was not without casualties, however. Sparta (who was restored to full mental health and stripped of the bulk of her power) had been made an officer in the Titans of Myth's royal military. She was sacrificed by the Titans of Myth in an attempt to lay siege to the planet Minosyss, which housed a Sun-Eater factory miles beneath its surface. Sparta's death had inadvertently helped trigger Donna's memory restoration. Athyns had also reappeared by this time and aided the heroes and the Mynossian resistance in battling the Titans of Myth. It was then that Hyperion, the Titan of the Sun, revealed Donna's true origins to her and ordered her to open a passageway into another reality by means of a dimensional nexus that once served as a gateway to the Multiverse itself, within the Sun-Eater factory's core. This turned out to be the Titans of Myth's real target. Donna did so, but, fearing that they would simply continue with their power-mad ambitions, she banished most of them into Tartarus. However, Hyperion and his wife, Thia, were warned of the deception at the last moment. Enraged, they turned on Donna, intending to kill her for the betrayal, but Coeus activated the Sun-Eater to save her and Arsenal. As the Sun-Eater began absorbing their vast solar energies, Hyperion and Thia tried to escape through the Nexus, but they were both torn apart by the combined forces of the Nexus' dimensional pull and the Sun-Eater's power. Coeus, who had learned humility and compassion from Donna, vowed to guard the gateway to make certain the other Titans of Myth remained imprisoned forever.


title: Donna Troy

text: Donna returns to the now-barren New Cronus where she shares a joyful reunion with Wonder Woman. Donna, charged with the guardianship of the Universe Orb containing the Multiverse Chronicles collected by Harbinger, makes the startling discovery that an impending doom is facing the DC Universe, a doom she cannot avert alone. Leaving Nightwing behind on Earth, Donna brings several heroes to New Cronus, including Animal Man; Cyborg; Firestorm; Herald; Bumblebee; Red Tornado; Shift; Green Lanterns Alan Scott, Kyle Rayner, and Kilowog; Jade; Starfire; Supergirl and Captain Marvel Junior (in Outsiders 30). The heroes confront a mysterious and menacing rip in space caused by Alexander Luthor, Jr. (as a part of his plan), which has sparked an intergalactic war. Donna's team contributes to the resolution of the conflict, but things take a dangerous turn when Alexander uses the inter-dimensional tear to recreate Earth-Two and, later, the Multiverse. Donna, along with Kyle Rayner (now called Ion), leads the team to attack Alexander Luthor through his space rift, giving Nightwing, Superboy, and Wonder Girl the time needed to destroy Alexander's device, and save the two Supermen and Wonder Woman from being merged with their Earth-Three counterparts. Though most of the team vanishes when they attempt to leave via the portal opened by Mal Duncan and Adam Strange, she returns to Earth shortly after the Battle of Metropolis, and provides a "junior red-sun eater" to the Green Lantern Corps in which to imprison Superboy-Prime at the end of the battle on Mogo.


title: Donna Troy

text: In the series "52", Cyborg, Herald, Alan Scott, Bumblebee, Hawkgirl, and Firestorm were all returned to Earth although gravely injured, while other heroes such as Supergirl, Starfire, Animal Man, and Adam Strange were lost in space. In the "History of the DC Universe" backup feature, when Donna and the artificial intelligence in charge of Harbinger's historical records finished her task of reviewing the DC Universe's history, both the artificial intelligence and one of the new Monitors revealed to her that the current timeline has diverged from its rightful path, in which Donna herself, instead of Jade, should have sacrificed herself for Kyle Rayner.


title: Donna Troy

text: During the World War III storyline, Donna goes into battle as Wonder Woman against a rampaging Black Adam.


title: Donna Troy

text: During the "One Year Later" storyline event, Donna Troy has assumed the mantle of Wonder Woman after Diana stepped down following the Crisis, feeling the need to 'find out who Diana is'. Donna wears a set of armor during her tenure as Wonder Woman, which includes the bracelet and star-field material used as part of her Titans regalia. Donna's post-"Infinite Crisis" origin, which incorporates elements from her previous origins, is as follows: Donna was a magical twin of Diana created by the Amazon Magala and intended as a playmate for the lonely princess. Donna was later captured by Hippolyta's enemy—Dark Angel who mistook her for Diana and placed her in suspended animation for several years. Years later, the grown up Diana, now Wonder Woman, eventually freed Donna and returned her to Themyscira. Donna was then trained by both the Amazons and the Titans of Myth. A few years later, Donna followed Diana into Man's World and became Wonder Girl, wearing a costume based on Wonder Woman's and helped form the Teen Titans. In her last adventure as Wonder Woman, Donna battles The Cheetah, Giganta, and Doctor Psycho. The trio attacks Donna as a means of finding the then-missing Diana. This eventually happens with the revelation that Circe is the mastermind behind the attacks and capture. After Donna is freed from Circe, she dons her old red Wonder Girl jumpsuit and aids her sister in battle telling Diana that she wants to give the Wonder Woman title back to her as she was never really comfortable using that name and would rather just be called Donna Troy.


title: Donna Troy

text: Donna later works alongside ex-boyfriend Kyle Rayner, who has taken up the powers and title of Ion again. They go up against one of the Monitors who attempts to remove them from the newly rebuilt Multiverse, claiming the two are unwanted anomalies. Donna returns to Earth with Ion in time for him to say goodbye to his dying mother. After that event, Donna joins several former Teen Titans in the current team's battle against Deathstroke and his Titans East team.


title: Donna Troy

text: Donna attends Duela Dent's funeral with the Teen Titans. She is confronted by Jason Todd, who seeks her out as a kindred spirit; the two cross paths while investigating Duela's murder. Donna places her investigation on hold when the Amazons invade Washington, D.C. during the events depicted in "Amazons Attack!" She travels to the city and confronts Hippolyta, advising her to end the invasion, but Hippolyta informs her that she will only consider a withdrawal if Donna will include Diana in their talks. Donna leaves to find her sister. Jason, who has followed Donna to Washington, tells her that the Monitors are responsible for Duela's death. Donna and Jason are attacked by the Monitor's warrior, Forerunner. They are saved by a benevolent Monitor, whom Jason calls Bob, and recruited to locate Ray Palmer. They soon learn that Palmer is hiding in the Multiverse.


title: Donna Troy

text: The group is joined by Kyle Rayner; Jason and Kyle bicker during the journey and Donna is annoyed. Ray Palmer is located on Earth-51 and Bob attacks him, betraying the group. Donna and the others escape, and are caught in the crossfire when Monarch's forces attack Earth-51. Donna is attacked by an alternate version of herself wearing a Wonder Girl costume, and overcomes her doppelganger and escapes. She takes the doppelganger's costume, defeats one of Monarch's lieutenants, and is acclaimed leader of an insect army by right of conquest. She leads the force of Myrmidons into the battle against Monarch's forces. Superboy-Prime confronts Monarch, and the insect warriors are killed in the fallout.