STEEL CUT FOR NEW 30,000 BBLS DOUBLE HULL OIL BARGE

STEEL CUT FOR NEW 30,000 BBLS DOUBLE HULL OIL BARGE

Orange, Texas, May 31st, 2005 - Steel has been cut for Harbor Bunkering Corporation's new, 30,000 BBLS double hull oil tank barge at Orange Shipbuilding in Orange, Texas. The new barge, ENTERPRISE, will be a welcome addition to the San Juan, Puerto Rico bunkering company's fleet of five barges and two tugboats, including a 3,200 HP tractor tug, the DON ALFREDO. Bristol Harbor Group, a full service naval architecture and marine engineering company located in Bristol, Rhode Island, designed the ENTERPRISE after several years of conceptual design exercises with Harbor Bunkering Corporation's Operation's Manager, Eric Rivera. Lofting and construction drawings have been developed by Genoa Design International, Limited (Genoa), and in an interesting twist, all design costs, both BHG and Genoa's, have been paid for directly by Harbor Bunkering Corporation, ensuring that the design meet's the company's, and Mr. Rivera's, strict requirements. The vessel is to be classed ABS Maltese Cross A1 Oil Tank Barge, certificated for oceans service, and has fifteen cargo tanks and three manifolds for loading and discharging at a myriad of locations. The 277'-6" x 58' x 18'-6" flush deck, double hull oil tank barge is fitted with two longitudinal bulkheads for optimization of the operator's specific cargo requirements. The suction headers are 14" in diameter and the cargo pumps include one turbine pump for lighter cargos, Byron Jackson model number 12LS16GMC, and one IMO 4131C-800 JD screw type pump for more viscous cargos. The vessel will normally carry both heavy fuel and diesel oil, necessitating a complex piping and internal transfer arrangement. Bill Jordan, one of BHG's senior naval architects states, "the operator's complex piping arrangements provided a design challenge as there is not much real estate on the deck of a barge this size once you include three manifolds, two deckhouses, a crane, and two separate and complex piping systems." However, BHG has met the design challenge, and has received positive feedback from the operator regarding the vessel's layout. "We have very specific cargo carrying requirements, and Bristol Harbor Marine Design has done a wonderful job incorporating our needs in this design" says Mr. Rivera. ENTERPRISE is to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2005, and is the first double hull tank barge to be built by Orange Shipbuilding, but the second vessel built by Orange Shipbuilding for Harbor Bunkering Corporation.