Safely Escorting the VLCC

June 1, 2018

Four Suderman & Young Tugboats position the large crude oil tanker into the Enterprise Dock at the Port of Texas City on 4/26/18. The double hull tanker is 330 meters long by 60 meters wide and currently flying under the flag of Hong Kong.

In April 2018 the VLCC Nave Quasar arrived at the Enterprise Products Partners (EPP) terminal in Texas City. This ship is the largest to ever enter the ship channel, and is a test of future VLCC oil shipments. The Nave Quasar was assisted to the berth by a flotilla of Suderman and Young Towing Company Z-Tech tugs, two Z-Tech 30-75 (Thor and Lamar) and three Z-Tech 24-60 escort tugs (Neptune, Oceanus and Poseidon), operated by G & H Towing of Galveston Texas. The five Z-Tech tugs have a combined bollard pull of 330 tonnes, with 2 x 75 tonne and 3 x 60 tonne tugs and safely berthed the Nave Quasar at Texas City.

The relationship between G & H Towing and Robert Allan Ltd. started back in 2004, with design and construction of the first two Z-Tech 30-75 tugs, which where the first in the US and for G & H Towing. Since that date G & H Towing fleet of Z-Tech tugs has grown to 18 Z-Tech in operation and will soon grow to 26 Z-Tech tugs with the introduction of the new series of Z-Tech 30-80 series starting late 2018. This will make G & H Towing the largest operator of Z-Tech series tugs in the world.

All of the G & H Towing Z-Techs have been an evolution of the original design built in 2004, with similar layouts but with advancement and refinement of the design in each build series. The latest Z-Tech 30-80 have sponsoned hulls with full escort tug capability, 80+ tonnes of bollard pull, EPA Tier 4 emission compliance, and are fitted with a render/recover winch.

For more information on any of the Z-Tech series, or on any other high-performance vessel designs developed by Robert Allan Ltd., please contact design@ral.ca.

Photo credit: Robert Mihovil