The following is text of a news release from Bollinger Shipyards:
(LOCKPORT, La.) — Bollinger Shipyards Lockport has delivered an articulated tug-barge (ATB) unit capable of transporting multiple clean petroleum products in the Alaska market to Crowley Fuels LLC, the Alaska-based petroleum transportation, distribution and sales unit of Crowley Maritime Corp.
Crowley Shipping provided vessel construction management services in Bollinger’s facility located in Amelia, La. (Bollinger Marine Fabricators) from the final design phase through delivery. Crowley’s Seattle-based naval architecture and marine engineering firm, Jensen Maritime, provided the functional design. Bollinger’s engineering team provided the integration, detail design and construction package.
“On behalf of our skilled workforce, along with a strong operational support group, the Bollinger team is proud to have built this ATB for Crowley Fuels,” said Bollinger Shipyards President and CEO Ben Bordelon. “Contracts like this to build Jones Act-classed ATB units create and protect many jobs for U.S. mariners, shipyards and ancillary vendors, and that strengthens our local and regional industrial base. I am extremely proud to be part of a workforce that has, in the wake of this horrific pandemic, continued to safely focus and deliver an extremely unique, complex and very capable vessel.”
“We are pleased to take delivery of this high-performance ATB, Aveogan/Oliver Leavitt, and look forward to getting her up to Alaska to begin serving our partners at Petro Star,” said Rocky Smith, senior vice president and general manager, Crowley Fuels. “We congratulate the men and women at Jensen who designed the vessel and the team at Bollinger Shipyard who built it.”
The Alaska-class ATB unit consists of one twin z-Drive, 7,000-hp ocean tugboat measuring 128 by 42 by 21 feet, paired with a 100,000-barrel ocean barge measuring 400 by 85 by 32 feet.
The ATB was designed and built to meet ice class and Polar Code requirements, which include increased structural framing and shell plating and extended zero-discharge endurance. The double-hulled design also features a barge form factor to achieve high-cargo capacity on minimal draft.
The tug is fitted with two GE 8L250 main engines that meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s Tier 4 emissions standards. The generators on the tug and barge meet EPA Tier 3 and IMO Tier II emissions standards. In addition, a closed-loop freshwater ballast system will eliminate the need to discharge tug ballast water into the sea.
