Chouest to build 13 Damen tugs for new mooring/escort contracts

ASD 3212 in Chouest livery

OCTOBER 21, 2016 — Edison Chouest Offshore (ECO), Galliano, LA, is teaming with Damen Shipyards to build a total of 13 heavy duty mooring assistance and escort tugs. They will be deployed on two major projects for which ECO has recently won contracts, based in part on the use of well-proven Damen tug designs.

The first of these is a contract won by ECO earlier this year with a new Corpus Christ, TX, LNG export terminal. The agreement is for the supply of four escort tugs with a bollard pull of 80 tonnes, to operate at the terminal in Texas, which is currently under construction.

The Damen tugs will be of the well proven escort/mooring ASD 3212 design.

The other is the high profile 10-year ship escort-response vessel system, or SERVS, contract with Aleyska Pipeline Service Co. that will see ECO take over the ship escort-response duties in Valdez, AK, from July 2018.  For this, it will require nine, high-powered escort tugs.

MOST POWERFUL ASD TUG EVER
Damen and ECO will work together to deliver four more ASD 3212 tugs with a bollard pull of 70 tonnes each and five of the most powerful ASD tugs ever built — the ASD 4517.

With a bollard pull of more than 150 tonnes, the ASD 4517 is a joint Damen and ECO-developed escort tug specifically designed for the sometimes challenging weather conditions in the Prince William Sound.

“Chouest was pleased to have this opportunity to take Damen’s proven hull design and helped create a new, state-of-the-art escort design representing the most powerful ASD tug ever designed or built,” says Gary Chouest, President/CEO of Edison Chouest Offshore.

The vessels will be built using ECO’s highly regarded network of five shipyards and Damen’s support and expertise.

The contract was handled by Damen’s new Area Support office in Houston, which opened on August 1, 2016.

“Within just three months Damen has won orders for the construction of 27 tugs at four different U.S. shipyards, and we have only just begun!” says Jan van Hogerwou, General Manager New Construction Damen Area Support North America.