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OPA '90 Anniversary Finds Tanker Barge Industry Coping With Change Tanker Barge Fleet Profile • The tanker barge industry transports an estimated 30% of all the petroleum consumed in the United States. U.S. petroleum consumption is estimated at 17 million barrels a day. • Number of U.S. -flag tanker barges: 3,978 vessels, ranging in length from 100 to 600 feet. • Barges with double hulls: estimated at 62% to 75% of existing fleet. • Cost of new construction: inland or coastal barge, $1.2 million; oceangoing barge, $3 million. • Cost of adding a double hull: $750,000.* • Cost of adding only double bottom or double sides: $250,000. • Ordinary tanker barge life expectancy: 25 years. (Partial retro- fitting can add up to 15 more years.) *Estimated cost of retrofitting a double hull onto an exisiting single-hull tanker barge, 297 feet long by 52 feet wide. SOURCE: Industry statistics With the recent passing of the first anniversary of the Oil Pollu- tion Act of 1990, the tanker barge industry, which transports one-third of all the oil consumed in the United States, has begun to cope with change. Even before the Coast Guard has issued the formal regulations to implement the law, which was en- acted in the wake of the 1989 Valdez oil spill in Alaska, the transforma- tion of the inland and coastal ma- rine transportation industry has begun. Unwilling to risk the com- pounded liability imposed by the 1990 act's strict new standards aimed at protecting the environ- ment, some coastal tanker and in- land barge companies are being sold off by corporate parents. Included in those risks are fed- eral liability limits that have bal- looned 700 percent, and the with- drawal of federal preemption of state damage awards, which means that state courts can hold spillers liable for unlimited amounts. Domestic tanker barge compa- nies, meanwhile, face much higher operating costs, a factor that many industry observers say will lead to a mass consolidation. Ashland Oil Co. recently sold its Great Lakes tanker operation to a U.S. and Canadian investor group headed by Montreal-based Enerchem Transport Inc. Robert Kiefer, transportation and supply group vice president at Ashland Oil, said the two-ship operation was sold because of the unlimited liability the ships face in several states along the Great Lakes. Mr. Kiefer, like many in his in- dustry, anticipates a consolidation. The Oil Pollution Act of 1990, he said, is more devastating to inland companies because you have a lot of mom-and-pop companies. "In places like the Canawaha River in West Virginia, we use primarily outside companies to tramp up it. I don't know what these companies are go- ing to do." Ashland charters about 20 per- cent of the 300 barges it operates from other owners. Recently, near Port Arthur, Texas, where two states that weath- ered the oil bust are joined—Louisi- ana and Texas—New York-based Sequa Corp. put up for sale its prof- itable tanker barge fleet, Sabine Towing and Transportation Co. Sabine employs 479 people and operates 38 tanker barges, 24 har- bor tugs and push boats and six coastal tankers around the Gulf of Mexico and along the Atlantic Coast. Its single-hull tanker barge fleet has a hauling capacity of about 800,000 McDermott Completes Fabrication Of Alabama Gas Production Platform McDermott Marine Construction recently completed the fabrication and installation of a gas production platform and pipeline for Mobil Oil in the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile Block 823-A. It is the first permanent offshore structure in the Gulf off the coast of Alabama. The jacket and deck were fabri- barrels. 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