Harvey Gulf chief to deliver IWBS 2013 keynote

Shane Guidry, chairman and CEO of Harvey Gulf International Marine, will deliver the keynote address at the Eighth Annual Shipyard Day.

Guidry, who has been CEO of Harvey Gulf since 1997, will speak Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. During his 16 years at the company, he has guided Harvey Gulf into the deepwater and ultradeepwater markets where larger marine assets are needed. His primary strategy has been to foster corporate growth through fleet enhancement, and focus on what he says is the future of the marine industry — deepwater exploration and development.

New Orleans-based Harvey Gulf has been busy. The company, which received its first public rating from Moody’s for a new $1 billion credit facility in June, has been building and acquiring vessels at a feverish pace.

Proceeds from the new facility will be used to refinance existing debt, and acquire nine OSVs and fast service vessels from Gulf Offshore Logistics LLC (GOL) for $189 million.

The GOL deal for the purchase of DP-2 offshore supply and crew-suppliers was announced in May. The purchase includes six PSVs that range from 250'/2,650 DWT to the two 295'/5,200-DWT vessels being built at Thoma-Sea Shipbuilders in Houma, La. The addition of GOL’s five crew-suppliers/fast supply vessels will enable Harvey Gulf to break into the crewboat market.

“The Gulf Offshore acquisition gets us into another piece of the market I am not in,” Harvey Gulf CEO Shane Guidry told WorkBoat. “I’ll get my feet wet, and I’ll build a bunch of them.”

In September, Harvey Gulf announced that it will purchase most of Abdon Callais Offshore’s assets including 48 offshore supply vessels. Four of the OSVs are currently under construction. Golden Meadow, La.-based ACO has one of the youngest and largest OSV fleets in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

Just over a year ago, Harvey Gulf finalized its purchase of nine Bee Mar LLC offshore supply vessels for $243 million.