Diversification Keeps Gulf Vessel Builders Afloat
Companies building vessels on the U.S. Gulf are servicing a flock of domestic and overseas clients while their offshore oil and gas customers wait for Washington to issue more drilling permits and safety rules. Some of the region's builders are busy making repairs. After a federal ban on deepwater drilling ended in October — three months after BP's well was capped — the Gulf remains quiet, but industry members expect business to improve eventually. Gulf vessel builders have seemingly ignored an old sailors' warning to “never plant you right and left feet in two different boats.” Instead…
Rigdon Marine Christens Fast Supply Vessel
Billy Guice, Vice President of Sales and Marketing of Rigdon Marine Corporation (RMC), announced the christening and delivery of the Hammerhead, the first of four proprietary FSV (fast supply vessels) the company is building. Mrs. Shelley Puckett, wife of Mike Puckett, a Vessel Manager for RMC, christened the 181-ft. FSV prior to its deployment in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The Hammerhead is a 181x 34-ft., 7,200-hp, DP-1 FSV, which features a capacity of 1,001 barrels of liquid mud, 664 barrels of rig water, and a cargo deck capacity of 400 metric tons. The state of the art FSV will include a 250 hp drop-down azimuthing bow thruster, and a cargo discharge capacity of 500 gallons per minute (GPM) of liquid mud, 300 GPM of rig water, and 300 GPM of fuel oil.
