Jawar Al Khaleej expands fleet with huge tug newbuilding delivery

Albwardy Damen’s shipyard in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, has completed 13 tugs for Jawar Al Khaleej, which supports tanker-based crude exports at offshore terminals in Iraq.

They will be operated jointly by Jawar Al Khaleej and General Company for Ports of Iraq (GCPI).

Damen Shipyards built the hulls and structures of 12 tugs and a shoalbuster at its shipyards in Vietnam and Romania. They were then transported to Albwardy Damen’s facilities for client-required modifications.

These 13 vessels were ordered in March 2019. They include four 28-m azimuth stern drive (ASD) tugs, built to an ASD 2813 design and two 32-m tugs built to an ASD 3212 design. All six have escort towing notation and FiFi1 fire-fighting systems.

Albwardy Damen also completed three 25-m tugs built to Damen’s new reverse stern drive (RSD) 2513 design that can provide towage and tanker handling services in both fore and aft directions.

Jawar Al Khaleej has also taken delivery of three 22-m Stan Tugs 2208 and a 26-m Shoalbuster 2609 vessel.

Three of the tugs started operations in October 2019, another three are en route from the UAE to Iraq and the other seven tugs were in Albwardy Damen’s shipyard for the handover ceremony on 20 October.

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Jawar Al Khaleej chairman Baydaq Al Jazaeri said these 13 tugs were ordered in response to the large contract it gained from GCPI for operations in Iraq. “This mission was not an easy one,” he said. “It was a great challenge. However, we had confidence in our partner in this business.”

Its contract with Albwardy Damen includes a computerised planned maintenance system, spare part packages, remote monitoring systems on board all of the tugs and crew training.

Jawar Al Khaleej has provided marine services in Iraq for 10 years with a modern fleet of a Damen-built vessels including two stan tugs, three ASD 3213 tugs and a 50-m fast crew supply vessel.

A video of the newbuildings and handover ceremony

Tug and offshore support vessel operations and newbuildings will be discussed during Riviera Maritime Media’s Annual Offshore Support Journal Conference, Exhibition and Awards in London in February 2020.