Svitzer’s Australian hybrid quartet complete

The last in the series of four eco-friendly hybrid tugs have now been delivered to Svitzer for operation at Chevron Australia’s Gorgon LNG installation off the country’s northwest coast.

Chevron’s Gorgon project is set to become one of the largest natural gas projects ever undertaken globally as well as the largest single-resource development in Australia’s history. Natural gas from Gorgon is set to be off-loaded via a 2.1km long loading jetty for onward shipment to international markets while also supplying domestic gas to the Western Australian mainland via pipeline.

The eco-friendly nature of the Gorgon LNG project is demonstrated with the selection of four newbuild hybrid ‘green’ tugs Svitzer Euro, Svitzer Perentie, Svitzer Boodie and Svitzer Dugong, all named after fauna native to Barrow Island’s Class A nature reserve (Svitzer Euro is named after a wallaby-like resident of the area). All four tugs were constructed at Singapore’s ASL Shipyard with Svitzer taking delivery of the vessels between December 2014 and March 2015. Operations at the terminal were scheduled to commence early in June this year.

The new fleet of 33m long and 13m beam diesel-electric tugs have an impressive 75t bollard pull and are members of Svitzer’s second generation Ecotug class. Noteworthy eco-friendly features of the new vessels include: electrical deck equipment, low-reflection paint, double wall fuel tanks, solar panel water heating and on-board water recycling.

Kelvin Yeo, General Manager (Terminal Towage) for Svitzer said: “As well as Svitzer's proven operational excellence and commitment to the highest safety standards, our environmental credentials helped us secure this new contract. Powered by diesel-electric hybrid systems and equipped with technology that reduces noise and light emissions, as well as fuel consumption, our new 'green' tugs are perfectly suited for operations within what is one of Australia's most environmentally sensitive regions.”