Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG) is exercising its option to build a second 240,000-bbl tank barge for oil and chemicals at Gunderson Marine in Portland, Oregon.
The Jones Act barge will be designed to be paired with one of OSG’s existing modern tugs and will be delivered in the second half of 2020.
It will replace a unit that is expected to be phased out of service before the new barge arrives.
The NYSE-listed owner contracted a barge with the same specification in August last year.
The value of the two contracts has not been disclosed but will be financed through a combination of cash and future debt financing, OSG said in a statement on Tuesday.
“The larger barge capacity offered by OSG’s Gunderson design, as compared to most of the other available modern units, should give our barges a competitive edge on a dollar-per-delivered-barrel cost across almost all voyages,” Sam Norton, OSG’s president and chief executive, said in the statement.
