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Tri-Parish Times
Bollinger Shipyards Inc. has successfully completed the retrofit of a 360-foot Penn Maritime oceans tank barge, the POTOMAC, to meet the Oil Pollution Act standards of 1990.
This act was pushed through litigation soon after the Exxon Valdez incident. According to Robert Socha, executive vice president of marketing and sales at Bollinger, the act mandates that all vessels will be double-hulled by 2014.
The vessel arrived at Bollinger’s New Orleans east facility as a 360-foot single hulled barge with the capacity to hold 66,500 barrels of petroleum products, he said.
The vessel’s stern was modified and outfitted with the Beacon JAK connection system. Its heating system was revamped by the addition of heating coils and a new 12 million BTU Vampower unit, Socha explained. A ballast system and a 12-foot bow plug, along with an updated electrical system were part of the conversions.
The POTOMAC departed Bollinger’s port as a double-hulled 372-foot vessel with the capacity to carry 80,000 barrels.
Bollinger’s Executive Vice President Ben Bordelon said, “Our communications with the customer, and our dedicated employees were the key to the successful completion of this project. I cannot say enough about Penn and their team and their team who supported Bollinger, and helped to make this program a success.”
With the re-delivery of the fully OPA ’90 compliant POTOMAC, Bollinger picked up another contract from Penn Maritime for similar conversions.
Socha said, “The other barge is in-route to the shipyard right now.”
Bollinger has several other contracts to do similar conversions, according to Socha. “It’s highly specialized, and we have quite a few more conversions under way,” he said.
Jared Bailey can be reached at (985) 876-3008 or jared@tri-parishtimes.com.
Staff photo by Matt LeBlanc • Tri-Parish Times The POTOMAC, a 360-foot Penn Maritime oceans tank barge, was recently retrofitted by Bollinger Shipyards, Inc., to meet the Oil Pollution Act standards of 1990. The act requires that all vessels be double-hulled by 2014. With the upgrades, the POTOMAC has a shipping capacity of 80,000 barrels, up significantly from its previous 66,500 barrel capacity.
