Heedfully Handling a Colossal Crude Carrier

July 17, 2017

When the largest oil tanker ever to call on your port arrives, you need a confident team of tugboat crews and equipment to handle that ship safely. In May of this year, the VLCC tanker (Very Large Crude Carrier) Anne arrived at Port Corpus Christi, Texas U.S.A., looking to add a prospective significant boost to the export of U.S. crude oil to markets in Asia and Europe. The mammoth 1,093-foot tanker boasts an astonishing 2.2 million barrel capacity with a registered deadweight over 299,533 tons.

When called to action, Signet Maritime Corporation, the 41 year old marine services company based in Ingleside, Texas sent in a fleet of Robert Allan Ltd. designed tugboats for the formidable task. All very capable, high-performance ship handling and escort tugs, the vessels comprise a pair of RAmparts 3200s, a pair of RAstar 3100s, and a RApport 2400 MkII, totaling over 388 metric tonnes of bollard pull. Their mission included escorting Anne from the Gulf of Mexico though the network of barrier islands into Corpus Christi bay, handling her at the terminal, then undocking and escorting her to the seabuoy.

Signet and Robert Allan Ltd. are proud of this competent fleet and their talented crews, tasked with keeping the coastline safe. For more information on any of these series of high performance tugboats, please email us at design@ral.ca.