Kuwait Port Authority News

Volvo Penta recently equipped two Kuwaiti workboats, a pilot boat and a buoy layer, with twin 34-liter diesel engines. Both vessels, which have been laid-up since the invasion by Iraq in the beginning of the 1990s, are now in service in the Kuwait City harbor. The rebuilt boats, M/V Muwasalat and M/V Mursheed, are owned by the Kuwait Port Authority and are operated by Naseb Maritime Company. Direct from the start, the demands placed on the work and material were high. M/V Muwasalat is a 300-ton buoy layer equipped with a 25-ton bow crane.

Houston-based Kirby Inland Marine has a fleet of 215 tugboats and 911 tank barges, the largest operator of its type in the country with about one-third of the total tank barge tonnage in the US. Its total transport capacity corresponds to 16.6 million barrels. Kirby is in the midst of re-engining its fleet and the new engines being installed are from Volvo Penta. Volvo Penta has delivered slightly less than 100 engines to date in sizes from 5 to 34 litres cylinder volume to boats in Kirby's fleet. More than 40 of the engines delivered are for powering the tugboats. These engines operate under tough conditions, in which each boat pushes a line of connected barges, in temperatures that are often 40 degrees C in the air and 25 in the water.