The 80,000-barrel, double-hulled fuel barge christened at Senesco Marine’s
Quonset Point headquarters Oct. 8 is one of several the company is preparing
to build.
The “Antares” is the fourth barge built at the Southeastern New England Shipbuilding Corp. in the past two years. The 332-foot-long barge made of 2,000 tons of steel was built for a West Coast company that Senesco has agreed not to disclose.
The client also signed a second contract with the 5-year-old company for another 80,000-barrel double-hulled barge Oct. 8.
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An 80,000-barrel barge spans the size of a football field. Each barrel can hold 42 gallons of crude oil – about 3.4 million gallons in all. A barge of that size costs an estimated $9.5 million, with the present cost of steel, Chief Executive Officer of Senesco Marine Gary Schuler said.
Senesco is also working on a 100,000-barrel barge for the petroleum transportation company Reinauer Maritime Group, headquartered in both Staten Island, N.Y., and East Boston and is about to announce a series of other contracts. The company plans to more than double its work force from just over 200 employees to 500 over a span of one year, starting in February.
“Just two years ago, we were excited to get a barge. Now Senesco is becoming a huge player in this market,” said Senesco spokesman Mark Economou. “These contracts will make Senesco one of the fastest-growing companies in the state.”
Barge owners and operators are beginning to bring their fleets into compliance with the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which requires older barges to be retired or retrofitted and all single-hulled barges have to be retired by 2015. Single-hull barges have been involved with oil spills, like the Bouchard Transportation Company, which spilled almost 15,000 gallons of oil into Buzzards Bay.
“As barges reach a certain age, companies are preparing by either double skinning their single-hulled barge – which is rare – or buying a new one,” said Schuler.
Senesco Marine contracted with Fall River-based Sea Boats Inc. last year to build two 80,000-barrel, double-hulled barges for the company.
The company is currently negotiating contracts to possibly build a 150,000 ATB (articulated tug barge) with the option to build three more, said Economou. The ATB is a “hinged” connection system between the tug and barge, which allows movement in one axis, which isn’t possible with an ITB (integrated tug/barge) unit, where the tug and barge are locked together.
Contract negotiations were not final by press time and will be announced within the next few weeks, Schuler said.
The naval architecture firm Guarino and Cox of New Orleans design Senesco barges.
To prepare for the contracts, Senesco is leasing property across from its headquarters through the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation.
Senesco is reconfiguring its lease on its current Quonset property and leasing a 65,000-square-foot former Navy warehouse across the street from its Quonset facility. The building will be used for pipefitting and storage space for barge owners’ engines and parts, Schuler said.
The company will pay about $587,000 a year in rent, and will split the near
$2 million worth of improvements to the property with the state, the EDC reports.
