Around six firms including Bharati Shipyard, Hindustan Shipyard and other international firms have queued up for Shipping Corporation of India’s (SCI) plan to acquire four anchor handling tug supply vessels (AHTSVs) with 80 tonne pull capacity.

The international firms include Colombo Shipyard; and one shipyard each from China, Korea and Bangkok, said sources. Tuesday was the last day for submission of technical bids for the SCI tender.

The vessels, to be used in unrestricted water, would be utilised for anchor handling, towing, transporting pipes, fresh water, diesel oil, bulk cement, stores materials, equipment, external fire fighting, emergency response and rescue, standby duty and anti-pollution control and move men and materials between platforms. The vessel would also be used to supply supports to the offshore oil and gas field on a 24-hour per day duty. The vessel may be utilised for any offshore duties within the capabilities of the vessel.

If the value of the tender remains below $120 million approximately, then SCI can place the order without requiring a Cabinet approval. SCI expects to place the order at below $100 million, it is learnt.

Earlier tender cancelled

Incidentally, SCI had recently cancelled a tender to procure six AHTSVs with 60 tonne pull capacity. The tender was cancelled as SCI felt it would be more appropriate to procure higher capacity vessels based on demand. Around 13 firms including Colombo Dockyard, ABG Shipyard, Bharati Shipyard and Cochin Shipyard had bid for that tender.

With two-thirds of Indian crude production accruing from offshore, a high growth in demand is expected for vessels like AHTSVs that are used in marine logistics. Moreover, shipping firms are also seeing increased demand for such vessels from Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Reliance Industries, Cairn India and Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation. Driven by this demand, shipping firms including SCI, Great Eastern Shipping, Varun Shipping are acquiring AHTSVs.

SCI had also stipulated that the vessel shall meet UK Offshore Operators Association (UKOOA) requirements with compliance certificates from classification society for class ‘C’ vessel. The shipyards are required to submit any one of the six specified designs including Robert Allan (Canada), Connan Wu (Singapore), Havyard (Norway), Vik- Sandvik (Norway) and Moss (Norway).