By Jim Shaw
The ocean and coastal towing sector on the West Coast is
usually seen as the rather routine business of moving barges, plus the
occasional dead ship, coastwise and to and from the 49th and 50th states, but
the energy industry is changing all of that, as is ATB development. A large
number of ATB units have been built on the Gulf Coast over the years, including
several giants for Crowley Maritime, but the ATB wave is now breaking strongly
on the Pacific Coast, with the Gunderson and Vigor yards at Portland contracted
to build ATB barges of 183,000 barrels capacity and higher, the largest ever
built on the Pacific. At the same time, the Nichols Brothers yard at Freeland,
Washington has won contracts to build a series of new 10,000-hp pushtugs for
the largest of these barges, destined for Kirby, with the overall design being
furnished by Guarino & Cox of Covington, Louisiana. Each of the
Nichols-built tugs will be powered by twin EMD 20-710G7C-T3 diesels, with a
continuous rating of 5,000 bhp each, and will be capable of pushing as well as
towing in open ocean conditions.
Open ocean towing will also be the principal activity of
three tugs Foss Maritime is having built on the Columbia River by the company's
own yard at Rainier. Their first employment is expected to be long
trans-Pacific tows of petroleum equipment bound from the Far East to Alaska's
north coast. Foss is also having a new deck barge completed by Gunderson for
Alaska deployment and this unit will also be used to support the petroleum
industry, indication that the energy sector will strongly drive tug and barge
development for some time to come.
The "Arctic" Class
Foss has been steadily preparing for growth in the Arctic
region and its new 132-foot Arctic-class tugs will have ice strengthened hulls
and twin Caterpillar C280-8 mains that will meet all environmental standards.
In addition, there will be no ballast tanks carried, thus eliminating the
chance that invasive species might be transported, and holding tanks for black
and gray water will be provided to permit operations in "no discharge
zones." Energy efficient LED lighting will also be used where possible and
all hydraulic systems will be compatible with biodegradable oil. Fuel, water
and provision capacities will allow for nonstop voyages in excess of 3,000
nautical miles.
Seattle's Markey Machinery is supplying direct diesel-drive
towing winches for the ABS classed vessels, along with a tow wire monitoring
system. Designed with the assistance of Seattle's Glosten Associates to achieve
well in excess of 100 metric tons of bollard pull, the new tugs are expected to
be first employed to tow building modules from South Korea to several of the
more remote ocean oil fields in the Arctic, with the first of the new boats,
Michele Marie, projected to be completed by the end of this year and to make
her first tow to Alaska next spring. Sister tugs Denise Lynn and Nicole
Kathleen will follow.
An Arctic Barge
In the barge sector, Foss is having a 360-foot by 120-foot
ocean-going deck barge built by Portland-based Gunderson Marine for delivery
later this year. Gary Faber, Foss' president of global services, notes that the
new unit will be particularly useful in Alaska where energy activity is picking
up. "This barge will further connect us to the shallow draft regions of
the Arctic," Faber said. "It allows us to move modules and cargo more
safely, almost anywhere in the world, which adds tremendous value to our
existing fleet."
The new barge's first Foss job is expected to occur in early
2015, when the Seattle company will perform a second sealift of oil and gas
infrastructure to Point Thomson on Alaska's North Slope. According to Faber,
the barge will likely be towed from South Korea by the first of the three
Arctic-class tugs being constructed by the company's Rainier, Oregon yard.
"With increased activity on the North Slope we continue to add to our
Alaska capabilities," he noted. "Along with our new Arctic-class
tugs, this barge will add yet another valuable asset."
Gunderson Builds ATB Barges
Besides the Foss barge, Gunderson has won contracts covering
the construction of two new 578-foot articulated oceangoing oil and chemical
tank barges for Houston-based Kirby Offshore Marine, with completion of the
first unit scheduled before the end of next year and the second to follow in
mid-2016. The ATB barges will have a capacity of 185,000-bbls each, making them
the biggest ATB barge units to be built on the coast to date.
According to Joe Pyne, Kirby chairman and chief executive
officer, the new ATB sets will cost approximately $75 million each to build,
with the push tugs to be furnished by Washington State's Nichols Brothers Boat
Builders. Pyne noted that the twin sets have been ordered because of
"consistently strong coastal tank barge demand, utilization and increasing
pricing." Kirby is also having 66 new inland tank barges and one inland
towboat built along the Mississippi River and on the Gulf Coast plus two
155,000-barrel capacity ATB barges and two 6,000 HP pushtugs at Wisconsin's Bay
Shipbuilding Company.
Previous to the Kirby and Foss contracts, the Gunderson yard
had turned out the 380-foot by 96-foot deck barge Polar Trader for
Seattle-based Northland Services and the 362-foot by 105-foot deck barge Columbia for
Coos Bay, Oregon's Sause Bros. In addition, two 216-foot by 52-foot wood chip
barges were finished for Washington's Dunlap Towing and two 200-foot by 54-foot
deck barges completed for Seattle's General Construction.
Vigor Fab Builds ATB Barges
Down-river from the Gunderson yard the Vigor Fab facility on
Swan Island has won a contract to build two 83,000 bbl. capacity tank barges
for Seattle's Harley Marine Services, with both 422-foot by 76-foot units also
to be configured for ATB operation. Designed by the Elliott Bay Design Group,
the twin units will be among the largest vessels operated by Harley when
delivered in the spring of 2015 and the summer of 2015. They will follow an ATB
barge of nearly the same capacity being built by Zidell at Portland, and to be
pushed by a 4,070-hp tug being completed by Conrad Industries on the Gulf
Coast.
Vigor itself has launched construction of the first of three
push tugs it is building for Vancouver, Washington-based Tidewater Barge Lines,
the first newbuildings Tidewater has ordered in nearly three decades. Designed
by CT Marine of Edgecomb, Maine, the state-of-the-art vessels have been
designed specifically for service on the Columbia/Snake river system, which
Tidewater serves as far inland as Lewiston, Idaho. Each of the 102-foot by
38-foot tugs will be powered by twin EPA Tier III compliant Caterpillar 3516
diesels of a combined 4500-hp. Earlier this year the Vigor yard delivered the
4,050-cubic-yard capacity split-hull dump bargeFreedom to
Tacoma, Washington-headquartered American Construction Company (see Pacific
Maritime Magazine, February 2014) and, prior to that, the 250-foot by
70-foot deck barge Iliuliuk Bay to Harley Marine.
Hyak's Towing Tugs
Across the Columbia River, at Vancouver, Washington, the JT
Marine Shipyard has completed two ocean-going tugboats, the 120-foot by 35-foot
twins Hawaii and Washington, for
Hyak Maritime, with both vessels now operating under charter to Crowley Marine
Services. These boats make use of a pair of medium-speed General Electric 8L250
EPA Tier II diesels driving Schottel FP1515 azimuthing stern drives, the
combination giving them a free running speed of 14.5 knots and a bollard pull
of about 82 tons. Their design is based on the successful Titan class tugs
which Seattle-based naval architects Jensen Maritime developed in conjunction
with Seattle towing operator Western Towboat a number of years ago.
The success of this class in strenuous ocean towing is
evidenced by the fact that Western Towboat is currently constructing its
seventh Titan class at Seattle while JT Marine is building its third Titan for
Hyak. This boat, to be christened Montana, will differ from
the previous two by making use of a Markey series TESD-34 100HP double drum
electric winch at the stern. This equipment is rated for 2,500 feet of 2
1/4-inch wire rope on each drum and features a line-pull of up to 183,000 lbs.
and a drum brake capacity of 293,000 lbs. The two previous tugs make use of
JonRie 500 double drum towing winches outfitted with 2,400 feet of 1/4-inch
wire on the primary drum, and 1,800 feet of 2-inch wire on the secondary drum.
An ATB Shows its Worth
In normal applications articulated tug/barge units
traditionally remain coupled together in a commercial cargo move but Foss
Maritime demonstrated this past year that advantage can also be taken of their
ability to be safely uncoupled. Queried by a petroleum company if it could
safely deliver a large prototype drilling rig from China to a shallow draft
harbor in the Arabian Gulf, Foss drew on its previous experience with the
particular harbor in question, which it had done a congestion study on two
years ago, and then asked Seattle's Glosten Associates to prepare a harbor
entry and berthing simulation using Foss' ATB barge Mariner.
Normally coupled to the pushtug Strong (thus "Strong
Mariner") the bow-door equipped barge met two key elements of the
project, namely that it could accommodate all of the parts of an 11,022 cubic
meter oil rig and deliver such parts in under five meters (16.5 feet) of water
while berthed at a pier designed for a much smaller vessel.
After considerable berthing studies and load measurements,
the ATB loaded the rig, Abu Dhabi National Drilling Company's ND66,
at Zhanjiang, China in August of last year, an operation taking 13 days, then
set sail for Abu Dhabi. Once off the discharge port the barge was separated
from its pushtug and taken in hand by three smaller tugs furnished by the
locally-based National Marine Dredging Company and maneuvered to its berth.
Once secured, the rig was offloaded from the barge in five days. Because of the
success of this operation, Foss was awarded a second contract to move another
rig to the same location. This time the load-out was accomplished at Shanghai,
China in under four days while discharge near the original location took less than
two days. With two successful moves under its belt, Foss is continuing to work
with ExxonMobil and the Japan Oil Development Company on ways it can continue
to assist in this project.
Towing in the Gulf
Closer to home, Crowley Maritime has been very busy with
towing operations in the Gulf of Mexico where it has completed a number of high
profile moves for the petroleum industry, all accomplished using its recently
completed Ocean-class tugs and high deck-strength 455 series barges. Last year,
the Crowley tugs successfully delivered the Olympus platform and Lucius spar to
a location in the US Gulf, the move undertaken in three stages, both nearshore
and offshore (see Pacific Maritime Magazine, December 2013).
Earlier this year, Crowley equipment was again called upon
to move and deliver the Jack/St. Malo facility from
Ingleside, Texas to a position between the Jack and St. Malo offshore oil and
natural gas fields where the unit was connected to its moorings and made
storm-safe in more than 7,000 feet of water. To undertake this task Crowley
employed its 455-series barge Julie Bas well as the tugs Ocean
Wind, Ocean Wave and Ocean Sun. During the
first stage of the move, the rig's topsides were skidded onto Julie
B and later lifted and installed onto the hull of the Jack/St.
Malo, which was then moved into deep water by the tugsOcean Wind and Ocean
Wave, with Ocean Sun providing escort.
The Crowley-contracted tug Harvey War Horse II then
helped move the platform to its final location, with the 455-series barge455
7 and third-party barge Marmac 400 following
under tow of Crowley tugs Warrior and Pilot,
both loaded with piles to serve as anchors for the platform. In addition, the
barge Marty J, towed byPilot, made three
subsequent trips to the installation site to deliver additional equipment. This
included chains, connectors and line reels that were used in the mooring of the
facility. "This was another successful pairing of Crowley's new
Ocean-class tugboats and high-deck strength barges," said Crowley's John
Ara, vice president, Solutions, concerning the complicated move. "We look
forward to utilizing these specialized teams and assets in projects in the
future."