Atlantic Marine to Build Two OSVs for Hornbeck

Atlantic Marine, Inc. signed a contract with Hornbeck Offshore Services, Inc. of Mandeville, La., to build two large, high capacity, Offshore Supply Vessels (OSVs) to serve the deepwater offshore oil industry in the Gulf of Mexico and worldwide. These two vessels will be built at Atlantic's Alabama Shipyard Division in Mobile, Ala. Both vessels are scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 2002. The contract includes options for two additional vessels.

The vessels are state-of-the-art OSVs, each equipped with dynamic positioning capability. The vessels will be U.S. flagged and ABS Classed with dual U.S. Coast Guard certificates for both subchapter I and L. The vessels are 260 ft. long, powered by 6,780 hp Caterpillar engines, and have a large cargo capacity, which includes fuel, deck cargo, drill water, dry mud and liquid mud.

These two vessels will expand the Hornbeck fleet in the Gulf to 13 OSVs. Hornbeck also operates several tugs and barges in the petroleum transportation market in the Northeastern USA and Puerto Rico.

"We are especially pleased to have Hornbeck return to Atlantic Marine for the construction of these two vessels," said Dick Wells, President of Alabama Shipyard. "This project will add over 100 new jobs to our employment, plus provide stable employment for our current employees throughout 2001."

This is the second major contract at Alabama Shipyard in the last few months. In September it signed a contract to build a second Articulated Tug and Barge (ATB) for Reinauer Transportation Company of New York, a 143,000-barrel ATB is scheduled for delivery in October of 2001.