ALP Maritime Services has agreed to acquire six modern, long-distance anchor-handling and towing (AHT) vessels for about $220m.
Constructed in Germany between 2006 and 2010, the vessels to be acquired include a 192t bollard pull AHT Magnus, 207t Taurus, 219t Janus, 218t Ursus, 301t Uranus and 306t Orcus.
The vessels are operating in the 200t and 300t Bollard Pull towing vessel segment and will add a combined 1,450t of Bollard Pull to the ALP fleet.
ALP will acquire the vessels during the period from 1 December to 31 March 2015.
The company claims that the six AHTs are currently the most powerful and advanced long-distance towing vessels on the market and will only be surpassed by the X-bowed ALP Future vessels when they start services in 2016.
ALP will rename the vessels after a satisfactory inspection. AHT Orcus will be renamed ALP Centre, whereas AHT Uranus, AHT Ursus and AHT Janus will be renamed ALP Guard, ALP Forward and ALP Winger, respectively.
AHT Magnus will be renamed as ALP Ace and AHT Taurus will be rebranded as ALP Ippon. The names have been selected to easily identify to customers their towing capacity.
Based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, ALP Maritime Services is an international provider of commercial and operational services in the towage, transport and installation market to the offshore oil and gas industry.
