Double ship order

News

Vane Line Bunkering has awarded Manitowoc Marine Group a contract for the construction of a 480-foot, 145,000-barrel, double-hulled hot oil tank barge and a 6,000-horsepower tug.

Vane Line Bunkering

has awarded Wisconsin-based

Manitowoc Marine Group

(MMG) a contract for the construction of a 480-foot, 145,000-barrel, double-hulled hot oil tank barge and an accompanying 6,000-horsepower tug.

The ocean-going articulated tug and barge (AT/B) unit is slated for delivery in fourth quarter of 2006. This contract also provides Vane Brothers with an option for an identical AT/B unit to be delivered in the third quarter of 2007. Other contract terms were not disclosed.

The Vane contract represents the eleventh double-hulled barge and fourth ocean-going tug to be built by Manitowoc Marine Group. Both tug and barge, which will serve the mid-Atlantic petroleum markets, will be classified in compliance with ABS, Coast Guard, and OPA-90 standards.

"This barge is nearly three times the size of any vessel in our fleet, and Manitowoc is one of the few shipbuilders in the United States that has successfully built both ocean-going barges and high-horsepower tugs," commented Duff Hughes, president of Vane Brothers.