Companies Sign Joint Contract with ConocoPhillips

Bay-Houston Towing Co., Suderman & Young Towing Co. LP, and Moran Towing Corporation are pleased to announce they have jointly contracted with the ConocoPhillips Company to provide harbor tug services for LNG vessels calling at the Freeport LNG terminal, currently under construction in the Port of Freeport, Texas. Bay-Houston and Suderman & Young will each provide one 6300 hp Z-Tech tractor tug while Moran Towing Corp. will provide a 5100 hp ASD tractor tug. All three tugs will be classed by the American Bureau of Shipping, and equipped to ABS A1 Towing Service; ABS AMS; ABS Escort Service; and ABS Fire Fighting Vessel Class 1. G&H Towing Company of Galveston, Texas will operate the three tugboats.

The tugs will deliver a combined bollard pull in excess of 235 short tons. The Z-Techs are powered by two Caterpillar 3516C HD engines providing 6300 hp (4700 kw). The engines drive Schottel Model SRP 1520 Z-drives. The ASD tug is powered by two EMD 12-645F7B engines providing 5100 hp (3800 kw) driving Ulstein Model 1650H Z-Drives. Bay-Houston and Suderman & Young are each building one Z-Tech to be delivered by mid-2007 and are both in the final stages of contracting for the construction of two additional Z-Techs. The six 6300 hp Z-Techs, all FiFi1 equipped, will be operated by G&H Towing and added to the three tractor tugs already in their fleet. The additional tractors will significantly expand the companies’ capabilities throughout the ports of Houston, Galveston, Texas City, Corpus Christi, and Freeport. The Moran ASD tug will either be one of fifteen recently constructed tractor tugs that Moran currently operates, or one of the two additional tugs it will take delivery of by the end of this year.