Smit Lamnalco
Pulling power
As a brand Smit Lamnalco has been around since 2012 after the acquisition of Smit by Lamnalco a year earlier. With over 230 years combined experience in the provision of marine services, today’s company is a world leading supplier of towage and associated marine services to the offshore oil and gas industry. Employing over 3000 people across 30 countries, the company has a fleet of 225 vessels ranging from terminal and harbour tugs, offshore support vessels and AHTs, to utility craft and crew boats. As such, it has built up extensive experience in providing its services to oil and gas, LNG and SPM terminals, floating production vessels, harbour towage needs and mining logistics projects.
Perhaps most key to Smit Lamnalco’s combined and long-established success is its committed set of values. Safety, reliability, integrity, teamwork and entrepreneurship are quoted as being the driving principles behind today’s organisation. Taking these values into account, the company’s vision is to become the leading provider of safe and cost effective, integrated midstream marine services.
Demonstrating the company’s unprecedented capabilities, in July 2014 it successfully provided towage support for the world’s largest HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current) platform transfer and float-over. Deploying five state-of-the-art escort tugs with a combined bollard pull power of 450 tonnes, Smit and Lamnalco supported the unberthing process, the 24 mile tow offshore from Drydocks World, Dubai, and the float-over on to Might Servant One, the heavy transport vessel. The 15,000 tonne HVDC, DolWin beta, stands 90 metres tall and possesses the processing power to deliver sufficient energy to light up a city the size of Frankfurt.
Milestones continued to be reached in 2014 when in December, the company completed its acquisition of Pacific Basin Towage Australia (PBTA), part of the world leading dry bulk shipping company, Pacific Basin, to strengthen its footprint in the region. Building on the back of a strong locally focused business, Smit Lamnalco took over the entire harbour towage assets and activities and provided the extensive knowledge, capabilities and experience to allow the Australian business to compete on an international scale. Daan Koornneef, CEO of Smit Lamnalco, commented on the move saying: “We are excited by this acquisition of the second largest player in the country, which will enable the expansion of our footprint into Australia. PBTA and Smit Lamnalco share the same safety, quality and customer-focused values that will ensure a good fit and smooth transition.” At the time, this acquisition brought the company’s total active ports up to eight with 29 vessels.
Over the first half of 2015, Smit Lamnalco further extended its footprint in Australia by taking delivering of five Sanmar LNG proof tugs to serve three LNG export terminals in the port of Gladstone on Australia’s east coast. The five Bureau Veritas-classed tugs are 34 metres long, 14.5 metres wide, have a maximum draft of six metres and have FiFi 1 notation. Powered by a pair of Wärtsilä 8L26 diesel engines, each developing 2720kw at 1000rpm, the tugs are capable of 80-86 tonnes of bollard pull and are designed and built specially to assist the berthing and manoeuvring of LNG carriers. With this in mind, and adhering to the company’s core value of safety, the vessels are equipped with gas detectors and gas-tight dampers on all air inlets and outlets to ensure maximum crew safety. In addition, components such as winches, navigation lights, outside lights and emergency stop buttons are all explosion proof. This has been enhanced by extensive, all-weather, allscenario training programmes for all seafaring crew. Frederik Rutgers, General Manager for Smit Lamnalco at Gladstone commented: “We are delighted with these new terminal service vessels, are very impressed with the quality of construction and the tugs are performing well.” Significantly, the arrival of these vessels will enable the Smit Lamnalco and the port of Gladstone to eventually cope with an expected one LNG carrier every day for shipment.
With operations in the Australian region ramping up successfully, the company is now looking ahead at deploying its robust service portfolio to other regions of the globe, with plans to expand its fleet further over the next two years. Of particular attention will be East Africa and Asia, and Smit Lamnalco will be looking into possible organic and acquisitonal opportunities to facilitate this. With the development of LNG terminals across the world, the oil and gas landscape is changing and with close awareness of these new demands, Smit Lamnalco has been able to grow and develop successfully. Combine this with its focused commitment to its core values and geographical expansion strategy, and the company’s future looks secure and fruitful.
Smit Lamnalco
Services
Leading providers of safe and efficient towage and associated marine services to the oil and gas terminal industry
Issue 125 October 2015