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... A floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is a floating vessel used by the offshore industry for the processing of hydrocarbons and for storage of oil. A FPSO vessel is designed to receive hydrocarbons produced from nearby platforms or subsea template, process them, and store oil until it can be offloaded onto a tanker or transported through a pipeline.

FPSOs are preferred in frontier offshore regions as they are easy to install, and do not require a local pipeline infrastructure to export oil. FPSOs can be a conversion of an oil tanker or can be a vessel built specially for the application. A vessel used only to store oil (without processing it) is referred to as a floating storage and offloading vessel (FSO).

Oil has been produced from offshore locations since the late 1940s. Originally, all oil platforms sat on the seabed, but as exploration moved to deeper waters and more distant locations in the 1970s, floating production systems came to be used.

Oil produced from offshore production platforms can be transported to the mainland either by pipeline or by tanker.

When a tanker is chosen to transport the oil, it is necessary to accumulate oil in some form of storage tank such that the oil tanker is not continuously occupied during oil production, and is only needed once sufficient oil has been produced to fill the tanker. At this point the transport tanker connects to the stern of the storage unit and offloads oil ...

source: wikipedia

Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are vessels designed to carry wheeled cargo such as automobiles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, trailers or railroad cars that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels. This is in contrast to lo-lo (lift on-lift off) vessels which use a crane to load and unload cargo.

RORO vessels have built-in ramps which allow the cargo to be efficiently "rolled on" and "rolled off" the vessel when in port. While smaller ferries that operate across rivers and other short distances still often have built-in ramps, the term RORO is generally reserved for larger ocean-going vessels. The ramps and doors may be stern-only, or bow and stern for quick loading.

This shot was taken when she was laid up in Brunei Bay Anchorage area in Labuan Sabah Malaysia ... she was built in Europe in 1984 ... from Labuan, she undergo her last voyage to India / Bangladesh for scraping .. LPG stand for Liquid Gas Petroleum ... below are her particulars :-

Vessel's name: Berge Racine
Ex-name(s): Not Applicable
IMO number: 8116582
Flag: Norway International
Call sign: LNSQ3
Port of Registry: Stavanger
Summer DWT: 63254 MT
Type of vessel: Gas
Built: Mar 18, 1985
Type of hull: Double Hull
Owner: BW Gas Cyprus Limited, C/o BW GAS
Class Society: Det Norske Veritas
Operator: BW Fleet Management AS
ENGINE DETAILS: Engine Description 2 S.A. 5-cyl
Engine Model 5RLB90.

Some Specialised Details:
Cargo Capacity of 81,600 cu.m
Primary Cargo is Propane
Vessel can carry anhydrous ammonia, 2 Gas Connections, 3 Liquid Connections, Vapour Return Line
4 Rectangular Fully Refrigerated tanks
Minimum tank temperature of -50 degrees celsius
8 Deepwell Pumps
2 Booster Pumps

Commercially available LPG is currently derived from fossil fuels. Burning LPG releases CO2, a greenhouse gas, driving to global warming. LPG does, however, release less CO2 per unit of energy that of coal or oil. It emits 81% of the CO2 per kWh produced by oil, 70% of that of coal, and less than 50% of that emitted by coal-generated electricity distributed via the grid.

Being a mix of propane and butane, LPG emits less carbon per joule than butane but more carbon per joule than propane.

LPG can be considered to burn more 'cleanly' than heavier molecule hydrocarbons, in that it releases very few particulates when burnt.

Above shot is a VLCC (very large crude carrier) that is now presently laying up in Brunei Bay anchorage area at Labuan, Malaysia ...

An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a merchant ship designed for the bulk transport of oil. There are two basic types of oil tankers: the crude tanker and the product tanker.
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 petrochemicals from refineries to points near consuming markets.

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 550,000 DWT.

Tankers move approximately 2,000,000,000 metric tons (2.2×109 short tons) of oil every year. Second only to pipelines in terms of efficiency, the average cost of oil transport by tanker amounts to only two or three United States cents per 1 US gallon (3.8 L).

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.

source: wikipedia

The Story

It was said that the Kadazan/Dusun people originated from a place called ‘Nunuk Ragang’ which is roughly located at Tampias, where two rivers, Liwagu and Gelibang meet to the east of Ranau and Tambunan.
Nunuk is a Dusun word for ‘Bayan Tree’, Ragang comes from the word ‘Aragang’ which means red. Nunuk look like giant that provide good natural shelters. It’s tree top was estimated to be able to shelter under seven Kadazan/Dusun huts. -source: wikipedia-

Above photo is as Kadazan's female dancers, showing Sumazau dance costume at Borneo Art Festival 2010 in Labuan.

Sumazau is the name of the dance between a male and female, performed by couples as well as groups of couples, which is usually accompanied by a symphony of handcrafted bronze gongs that are individually called 'tagung'.

Photo taken by Sony DSC compact camera | Handheld