Crowley Solutions was awarded a five-year contract to deliver military specification fuel to the Eareckson Air Station located on the remote Aleutian Island of Shemya, Alaska.
Under the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency-Energy contract, Crowley will provide lightering and transportation of 4 million gals. of fuel annually for the radar and aircraft refueling station and its 180 military, contractors and civilians who operate it.
Crowley has transported and delivered the fuel since 1956 to the base 1,200 miles from Anchorage in the remote western reaches of the Aleutian Island archipelago.
The U.S. government has counted on the company’s experience and innovative logistics capabilities in remote and austere environments, including a unique over-the-shore evolution developed and executed by Crowley in 2020 as featured in this video, the company said. However, under the new contract term, Crowley will provide transformational improvements and cost efficiencies through the utilization of the company’s new, purpose-built articulated tug-barge (ATB) in a joint service by Solutions and Crowley Fuels, the company’s Alaska-based fuel transportation and distribution business unit.
The 55,000-bbl. (2.3 million gals.) ATB Aurora/Qamun will serve the air station and Crowley’s customers throughout western Alaska and the Arctic. The 410' ATB is specifically designed to meet Ice Class and Polar Code requirements in order to safely and effectively operate in Western Alaska year-round.
“Crowley’s record of dependability and high performance will add a new chapter under this contract when Aurora/Qamun enters service to the government and military,” Sean Thomas, vice president, for Crowley Solutions, said in a prepared statement.
The ATB, which was designed by Crowley Engineering Services powered by subsidiary Jensen Maritime, is undergoing its final outfitting prior to entering service this year. The tug — whose launch was captured in this video — is being built by Master Boat Builders, Bayou La Batre, Ala. The barge is being built by Gunderson Marine LLC, Portland, Ore.
