Gondan to build dual fuel trio

Spain’s Astilleros Gondan has been awarded a contract to build three escort tugs, of the RAL4000 DF design, for Østensjø Reederi of Norway. The latter has secured a contract to provide towing services at the the Statoil Melkoya terminal facility near Hammerfest in Norway and the tugs will be deployed in support of this

Each of the 40m long tugs will have a bollard pull rating of 100 tonnes and escort steering force of 155 tons. Designed by Robert Allan all three vessels are due for delivery in the first half of 2017.

The tugs will be powered by 6-cylinder Wärtsilä 34DF dual-fuel enginess. It is expected that they will operate primarily on LNG but the Wärtsilä DF engines provide the flexibility to select the most suitable fuel according to availability, price and local environmental restrictions.

Østensjø Rederi currently operates a fleet of 28 vessels, with its tugs serving facilities at four terminals located in Norway, England and Ireland.

A computer-generated image of the new dual fuel tugs that Gondan will build