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According to Joey Willis, president of Ocean Marine Services, Inc. (OMSI) in Nikiski and Kirkland, Washington, it takes a really skilled crew to be able to work in Alaska’s harshest conditions, especially when constrained by extremely tight schedules. The company, which owns and operates four offshore supply vessels, a landing craft, and a research catamaran, works with partner companies Offshore Systems, Inc. and Aleutian Fuel Services in Dutch Harbor, Offshore Systems Kena, Nikiski Fuel Services, and underwater diving contractor Blackwater Marine to make sure that clients’ needs are met around the clock.
“The increased activity has allowed us to add an additional crane and longshore crew at OSK,” says OMSI Vice President Kelly McNeil. “This provides us with the opportunity to work multiple clients and vessels at the same time.”
To continue this positive growth, OMSI recently added a 165-foot vessel, the Titan, to its fleet of four offshore support vessels. “Cook Inlet has seen some ups and downs over the years, but we have seen nothing but growth,” says Willis of the new addition. “The challenge for us has been keeping up with the demand. Our presence in the Inlet continues to grow, and that’s why we’ve brought another vessel to our fleet.”
Excerpted from "Diver Down, Diver Drone: Industrial Strength Mariners" by Vanessa Orr, first published in the August 2014 print edition of Alaska Business Monthly magazine. It is used here with permission.
Ocean Marine Services in Kirkland, Wash., had been looking for a vessel for about 18 months when it found the newest member of its five-vessel OSV fleet. The Titan is a 167'×40'×13' mini-supply vessel built in 2001 at Bollinger Shipyards.
"They’re very hard to come by for anything that’s in the kind of condition" they need, said Joey Willis, Ocean Marine president. The Titan, however, was in "excellent condition."
For Ocean Marine, a company that primarily services oil and gas operations in Alaska’s rough Cook Inlet, used vessels make sense since current day rates don’t justify the cost of a newbuild. They have to retrofit the vessels to handle the ice, extreme tides and swift current in the inlet, which has seen an uptick in exploration.
Thoma-Sea Shipbuilders, Houma, La., was working on the Titan in July, and Willis said the job includes a repowering from 2,400 hp to 5,000 hp or 6,000 hp.
Excerpted from "Secondhand News" by Dale K. DuPont, first published in the August 2014 print edition of WorkBoat magazine.
Ocean Marine Services 2017