Crowley’s new deck barges to support oil & gas ops in Asia Pacific

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.

These new barges, which will be contracted and managed from the company’s recently opened Singapore office, 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 which are increasingly embarking on large-scale onshore and offshore projects.

These new 400-foot-long, 120-foot-wide (122 meter x 36.5 meter) HDBs, named HDB 01 and HDB 02 are moored in Batam, Indonesia.

They have 25-foot (7.6-meter) side shells, which provide 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.

Crowley explains that the units 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,” explained 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/Jiangsu Yangzijang Shipbuilding Co., Ltd.