Crowley adds heavy lift barges to Asia Pacific assets

Crowley's solutions group recently received two heavy-lift, ballastable deck barges (HDBs) for use in the Asia-Pacific region

SEPTEMBER 29, 2014 — Crowley Maritime Corporation’s solutions group has received the first two of potentially four, new heavy-lift, ballastable deck barges (HDBs) for use by clients in the Asia-Pacific region.

The new barges will be contracted and managed from the company’s recently opened Singapore office. They will allow Crowley to better support regional customers in the oil and gas mining; Engineering, Construction and Procurement Management (ECPM); and Engineering, Procurement, Installation and Commissioning (EPIC) industries who are increasingly embarking on large-scale onshore and offshore projects.

The new 400 ft long by 120 ft wide (122 meter x 36.5 meter) HDBs, named HDB 01 and HDB 02 are moored in Batam, Indonesia. They have 25 ft (7.6 m) side shells, providing both the capacity and deck strength (up to 4,200 pounds per square foot or 25 tons per square meter) needed to accommodate larger drilling and production units used for deepwater offshore energy exploration and development.

They are designed with more robust ballast systems to deal with high tidal ranges found in the region’s load and discharge ports and have higher internal strength which allows tolerance when ballasting to the seabed, fully loaded – where tidal movement can be problematic.

“Customers in this region require locally available and tailored assets for their project needs,” said William Hill, director, business development in Singapore. “The industry has expressed the need for available equipment to support larger construction and topside moves along with complex deck loads. These HDBs were designed to do just that.”

The barges are ABS classed, with an approximate deadweight capacity of 20,000 metric tons.

Both were designed by Crowley’s Seattle-based, naval architecture and marine engineering subsidiary Jensen Maritime and were constructed in China by Seabridge Marine Contractors Ltd and Jiangsu Yangzijang Shipbuilding Co., Ltd.

Crowley opened its Singapore-based project management and logistics solutions office in July. It is located at 77 Robinson Road on the 34th floor of the Robinson Building and can be contacted at +65 6809 2160.

Crowley’s wreck removal, marine salvage and emergency response subsidiary Titan Salvage, based in Houston, also maintains a Singapore presence with a 45,000 square-foot site west of the city, allowing for more rapid emergency response in the region.