Just received note from friend recently hired to operate vessel for Coastal Villages Fisheries, says they need engineers, deckhands and mates. coastalvillages.org
Boyer has been towing for bowhead to my knowledge. 2014 should be interesting I see the nanuq is headed back to the gulf. The only boat still left on the west coast is the aiviq.
[QUOTE=rshrew;107184]Boyer has been towing for bowhead to my knowledge. 2014 should be interesting I see the nanuq is headed back to the gulf. The only boat still left on the west coast is the aiviq.[/QUOTE]
Rshrew…I thought Boyer was acquired by Northland?
btw, you available for that beer next week?
Nope Boyer sold their freight line in SE AK to northland. I imagine Crowley will use bowhead to transport oil cargos, being they sold out of that aspect of Alaska work besides oil. I should be around I’m thinking.
Until the oil companies drill and find a lot of oil in the Arctic, Crowley is really the only boat company with existing business enough, and future prospects enough, to justify investing up there. With its long history of successful service to the North Slope oil companies and all the small communities in Western Alaska, and its existing facilities, Crowley is way ahead of any other boat company. It doesn’t make sense for the others to invest up there until after a lot of oil is found.
I hate to see any one company (or any ten companies) have a virtual monopoly in anything. The top ten vessel operating companies in the US are already far too big, and they are gobbling up the little family style companies (that are more fun to work for) as fast as they can.
[QUOTE=tugsailor;107197]Until the oil companies drill and find a lot of oil in the Arctic, Crowley is really the only boat company with existing business enough, and future prospects enough, to justify investing up there. With its long history of successful service to the North Slope oil companies and all the small communities in Western Alaska, and its existing facilities, Crowley is way ahead of any other boat company. It doesn’t make sense for the others to invest up there until after a lot of oil is found.
I hate to see any one company (or any ten companies) have a virtual monopoly in anything. The top ten vessel operating companies in the US are already far too big, and they are gobbling up the little family style companies (that are more fun to work for) as fast as they can.[/QUOTE]
I agree with you entirely about monopolies in the maritime business but I don’t see Crowley “owning” any single industry sector and can’t own UIC but can only be a partner with them which is good for both Crowley and the native corporation. I have been on record of saying that I firmly believe both Crowley and Saltchuk have the knowledge of Alaska and the access to capital required to become the dominate offshore players in the Arctic and have been also clearly on record of expressing my distress that Shell seemed to be giving Gray Chouest a blank check to use to build his empire in the North as he has in the GoM but I DO NOT believe ECO is the right company for this. Not that Gary can’t pull it off, but I firmly believe the GoM way is not the right way to work in the Arctic and for Chouest to “learn Alaska” is not going to happen just overnight as already witnessed by us on New Years this year. Shell US may have a love affair going with Gary but if I were Shell, I’d be asking ECO in clear terms to either 1) get some seriously Alaska experienced people on your vessels up there and in your Arctic management staff or 2) hire the job out to a company who has a proven record which is either Foss or Crowley. Which of the two would be the better fit for Gary to work with is a good question but I feel that it would be Crowley as opposed to Foss yet I would rather it be Foss. Crowley is by far bigger in the GoM than Foss so can speak Gary’s dialect better than Foss can. Union contracts at the two companies (Foss/Crowley) would also be a part of this because I can rest assured that it makes Gary cringe at the thought of one single mariner with a union contract setting foot aboard on of his boats!
As far as investing the $$$ up in the Arctic, I believe that any service company will invest and build on contract and not on speculation for the future. The one smart move a Crowley or Foss could make would be to build a pair of 120m super ice OSVs now and find an operator to use them in the GoM until such time as the Arctic goes sky high and then you have the boats already in the bank ready to go rather than to wait for a slot in a shipyard to open and the inevitable waiting time for a pair of vessels to be built. This would be a risk that these ships would be over $100M each and might be too big and costly to be profitable in the GoM yet one has to look long and the first guy to step up to Shell with the fabulous equipment will get the prize I feel. Also, someone needs to get going on building a port up there on the Arctic coast deep enough for a merchant ship to get into as everything required needs to come by ship and Dutch Harbor is too far away from where the action is going to be.