Page 20: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (February 1991)

Southern Marine Industries

Owners, Operators, Suppliers Enter 1991 With Renewed Optimism

Maritime Reporter Staff

Optimism is certainly the pre-vailing feeling among owners, operators, builders and equipment suppliers of the workboat fleet serv- ing the Gulf of Mexico as they enter 1991. This renewed optimism can be traced in part to the belief that current supply vessel day rates, which are hovering around the $3,000 mark for a 180-foot supply boat, will climb to higher levels.

Earlier in 1990, optimists thought day rates might rise to as much as $3,500 by mid-year. However, for the last half of 1990 rates remained stable around the $3,000 mark.

But, without a doubt, the domes- tic supply boat sector has improved markedly as compared with the mid- to late-80s. According to a spokes- man for Offshore Services, which tracks rig and supply boat activity in the Gulf of Mexico, of the supply boats they track, 223 were working and 19 were idle, a 92 percent utili- zation. Of the anchor handlers the company tracks in the Gulf, 30 of 35 were employed, or 85 percent. "The oversupply of boats in the

Gulf has been solved by a number of fleet consolidations, equipment being moved to other sectors and conversions for the fishing and passenger markets," said Tom

Marsh of Offshore Services.

The present domestic supply boat fleet reportedly stands at about 280, discounting crew, utility and small supply vessels. Most vessels are on term charters, while still others effectively work the spot market.

First Supply Boat

Orders Placed

This past year domestic boat own- ers placed their first supply boat orders since the market downturn.

Among the first orders placed was

Oil & Gas Rental Services Inc.,

Morgan City, La. The Louisiana company ordered three 220-foot supply boats from Southern builder

Trinity Marine Group, a leader in the small ship construction sector.

Oil & Gas Rental's supply boats will be built at Trinity's Halter-Lock- port yard at costs in excess of $5 million each. The Oil & Gas Rental boats, intended for production sup- port, are scheduled for delivery in

June 1991. Since this initial order,

Trinity Marine received a follow-on contract from Oil & Gas Rental for an additional boat.

Oil & Gas Rental's order spurred both optimism and speculation that offshore vessel industry giants Tide- water and Zapata would soon follow suit. However, Tidewater officials restated their plans to only consider fleet replacements until day rates topped the $4,500 mark in the Gulf.

Over the past several months, in fact, Tidewater Marine has in- creased its fleet by acquiring exist- ing support vessels. The New Or- leans-based boat owner acquired 10 support vessels and one supply boat this past summer. All the boats are now part of Tidewater's West Coast fleet off California. Last fall, Tide- water acquired two 110-foot alumi- num crewboats and one 110-foot utility vessel for use in the Gulf of

Mexico.

Houston-based Kilgore Offshore also contracted with Trinity Marine to build a single 202-foot supply boat with an option to build three more craft.The order is for a new

Trinity design, the Economax, which offers high capacities for liquid and dry mud and increased cargo space.

Each boat will have a total capacity of 2,000 bbl of liquid and 7,200 eft of dry mud. Construction began late last year and delivery is scheduled for September 1991.

The rapid expansion of the Trinity

Marine Group has meet with great success. Most of the shipyards in the group, all of which are based in the South except HBC Barge, have a 12-month backlog. "We are always looking for new acquisitions if the price is right," said John Dane III, president of the Trinity Marine Group. "We in- tend to expand when the market and prices are right. At present a lot of operators, particularly in the off- shore market, are putting off deci- sions about new construction be- cause of the Iraqi situation. Once things get settled there, we could be in for a rush of new construction, but we hope this time we can learn from the lessons of the last oil crisis.

We want expansion, but this time we want it to be slow and steady."

Mr. Dane is confident that the group will be able to land at least ten of sixteen 220-foot oil pollution control vessels currently being bid by the government.

Another major project underway at Trinity's Halter Marine-Moss

Point, Miss., shipyard, is the con- struction of a huge $50-million dustpan dredge for the Army Corps of Engineers.

Jennings, Louisiana-based Leevac

Shipyards delivered a new 200-foot, 3,O00-hp supply boat to Sea Mar

Operators, Lafayette, La., in mid-

December. Leevac began the con- struction of the vessel in 1982, but halted construction when a buyer could not be found.

In a similar delivery, Candy Fleet,

Morgan City, La., purchased two 180-foot supply boats from Houma

Fabricators, Houma, La., for $2.5 million each. Construction of the boats had begun in the early 1980s, but was halted because of the down- turn in the market.

The crewboat sector has seen a jump in activity as well. Several boats are on order for Gulf Coast operators at Southern yards. Com- panies that placed orders last year include Gulf Craft, Crewboats, Inc.,

McCall Enterprises, Inc., and John

E. Graham. "There has been a definite increase in activity the last year, year and a half, in oil-related construction," said

Scott Tibbs II, general manager of

Gulf Craft, Inc., Patterson, La. "About 80 percent of our business has been from that sector," he said.

Gulf Craft has four crewboats on its ways. The vessels, three of which are for McCall Enterprises and one for Offshore Oil Services, vary in length from 160 to 130 feet. The company has orders for two other crewboats in hand.

Galveston Expects

Rise In Activity

Galveston Shipbuilding Company,

Galveston, Texas, located at Intra- coastal Mile 355A, is projecting increased demand for their services in the 1990s. The 24-year-old ma- rine repair and construction yard developed and built some of the nation's first double-skinned ITB units. The owners, the Fiegel family, see their yard's experience in both barge and repair and new construction techniques, including its ability to retrofit single-skin vessels, as a valuable resource to barge operators.

Bollinger Machine Shop & Ship- yard, Inc., Lockport, La., reports it experienced growth in all areas during 1990 and expects a continu- ation of that growth to last through 1993. During the last 12 months, the yard produced three 130-foot lift boats for Gulf operation.

Last year the yard also delivered the Doc Candies, a 117-foot tug, to

Otto Candies, Inc., Des Allemands,

La., and will deliver two similar boats to Hawaiian Tug & Barge

Corp. this year. Other activity at

Bollinger includes the production of eight 170-foot coastal patrol boats and eight personnel landing craft for the U.S. Navy.

With two separate yards located along the Intracoastal Waterway,

Quality Shipyards, Inc., of Houma,

La., is able to provide direct access to the Gulf of Mexico. According to new company president Jim Craw- ford, Quality is in the process of negotiating contracts for fish boat conversions for a domestic West

Coast operator. "Activity in the repair and conver- sion market, in particular, is on the upswing," said Mr. Crawford. "There seems to be a definite up- ward trend in the vessel repowering market as well. We are looking for- ward to the resumption of new con- struction of offshore vessels in the latter part of 1991, after the Middle

East situation is settled," he added.

Quality Shipyards recently com- pleted two major repowering proj- ects for domestic owners. The work for Hunter Marine Transport in- volved the repowering, refurbish- ment and modernization of a river tug, which was refitted with an EMD engine. The other project was for

Brix Maritime which involved a

Caterpillar repowering.

New Gambling Laws

Spur Orders

At the intersection of the Intra- coastal Waterway and the St. Johns

River in Jacksonville, Fla., Atlantic

Marine, Inc., received a $12.6-mil- lion contract to build three stern- (continued on page 24) 22 Maritime Reporter/Engineering News