Edison Chouest Offshore (ECO), marine tran[ds_preview]sportation provider and USA’s largest operator of OSV’s, has teamed up with Damen to build 13 heavy duty mooring assistance and escort ASD tugs.
The vessels are for two projects that ECO recently won. First of it these is a contract that the company won earlier this year with a new Corpus Christi based LNG export terminal. The agreement is for the supply of four escort tugs with a bollard pull of 80 t each. The vessels should operate at this new LNG terminal in Texas, which is currently under construction. They will be of the escort/mooring ASD 3212 design.
Most poweful ASD tugs ever built
More recently, ECO has won a high profile, long term contract in Alaska. The company is taking over the ship escort-response duties out of Valdez, Prince William Sound, from July 2018. Therefore it will require nine, high-powered escort tugs the company stated. For this environmentally-sensitive project, Damen and ECO will work together to deliver four more ASD 3212 tugs with a bollard pull of 70 t each. In addition five ASD 4517 tugs with a bollard pull of 150+ t each have been ordered. According to Damen these are the most powerful ASD tugs ever built. Damen and ECO developed the vessels design for the sometimes challenging weather conditions in the Prince William Sound.
All of the 13 vessels will be built on five shipyards.
