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The growing size of vessels calling at Middle East ports is triggering demand for more powerful tugs. As a reflection of this trend, the Port of Fujairah has placed an order for three new tugs with Sanmar Shipyards of Turkey. Each will have a 70 tonne bollard pull rating and will be built to the Robert Allan RAmparts 2400SX design. The order was confirmed at a recent signing ceremony held at Port of Fujairah in the presence of His Highness Sheikh Saleh Bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, chairman, of the Government of Fujairah’s Department of Industry and Economy.
The vessels will have Caterpillar 3516C main diesel engines, each developing 2,100 kW at 1,600 rpm, coupled to Rolls-Royce US 255 FP type Z-drives. All three will also have firefighting capabilities.
The Port of Fujairah is a major international supply, distribution and trading hub for bunker fuel and oil products. The ADCOP pipeline and single point mooring (SPM) buoys have introduced an additional UAE crude export market in recent years. Furthermore, the infrastructure of the port continues to develop and two additional berths will become operational this year while a VLCC berth with an alongside draft of 26m will be completed by June 2016. The new tugs from Sanmar are required to meet that expansion and ensure the continued efficiency of marine services at the Port of Fujairah.
In Qatar, Nakilat Damen Shipyards Qatar (NDSQ) has just delivered two new mooring tugs to towage operator Nakilat SvitzerWijsmuller (NSW), as part of a seven vessel order that the yard is currently working on for the company. The first of the new tugs, Umm Al Shubrum and Al Kharsaah, have completed sea trials at the port of Ras Laffan.
Both vessels will operate as part of Nakilat NSW’s fleet at the LNG port where the company currently operates over 30 vessels and performs 12,500 tug jobs per year, assisting ships entering and departing the port. Niels Tinsfeldt, managing director of NSW, says: “The new mooring tugs introduced represent a very agile and strong supplement to the existing tug fleet at the LNG port of Ras Laffan.”
