On Friday 9 February 2018, Tug Malta Limited inaugurated a new, compact, but powerful tug offering 83 tonnes bollard pull for escort and direct towing operations in the harbours and coastal waters of Malta. The tug was christened ‘ST ANGELO’ by Mrs Michelle Muscat at the Valletta Waterfront in the presence of The Prime Minister – the Hon. Dr Joseph Muscat, the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects – the Hon. Dr Ian Borg, the Minister for Energy and Water Management – the Hon. Joe Mizzi, the President and the Managing Director of Rimorchiatori Riuniti Group – Dott. Giovanni delle Piane and Mr Gregorio Gavarone respectively; and in the presence of Mr. John E Sullivan – Chairman of Tug Malta Ltd as well as other members of the Board. Port Chaplin Rev. Fr. Joseph Borg blessed the tug.
Tug boat ST ANGELO is an ASD 2913 Azimuth stern drive tug, built by Damen Shipyards in Galati, Romania. M/T ST ANGELO has been tailored to the requirements of Tug Malta with extra features that includes a fire-fighting Class 1 system, oil recovery and oil dispersing systems and ship escort capabilities. Tug St Angelo is further equipped with a hydraulic driven double drum render/recovery fore winch, an aft towing winch and a deck crane; all necessary for normal tow operations and for emergencies – to provide assistance in life saving, equipment rescuing and environmental protection situations both within and outside the territorial waters of Malta.
The vessel is equipped with two Rolls Royce Aquamaster propulsion units and twin Caterpillar main engines. St Angelo is also fitted with an LNG gas protection system for safe operations at the Delimara LNG Terminal. She will be mainly deployed in the Port of Marsaxlokk to render harbour towage services and to provide safety standby emergency and environmental incident response as necessary.
Tug Malta Ltd’s investment outlay of €8 million in ST ANGELO now brings the fleet to a total of eight tugs. This latest addition continues to modernise the Company’s fleet configuration in terms of type, tug power and capacity as to better meet the local shipping industry’s towage requirements particularly when deployed at the busy port of Marsaxlokk where increasingly larger ships are calling.
Tug Malta’s investment in M/T ST ANGELO is the first of three new tugs that the Company has committed to undertake towards Government and the Authority for Transport in Malta over a period of three years or so with the next two units expected to join the fleet during the first quarter of 2019 and 2021 respectively. The aggregate investment of around twenty-four million Euros has become necessary in order to service the ever increasing number and size of vessels calling at Malta’s harbours and requiring tug assistance; and to offer a 24/7 all year round towage support without delaying ship schedules in the relevant ports and in the respective terminals in both harbours and their approaches. With the advent of M/T St Angelo and the addition of two other new tugs to the fleet, Tug Malta is set to continue to deliver a competitive and efficient ‘value for money’ service to towage users.
The said investment not only fulfils any investment obligations that the Company has pledged to undertake for the foreseeable future, but shall ensure that Tug Malta will be operating an increasingly modern fleet that offers an excellent seakeeping behaviour as well as the required manoeuvrability that befits our ports, terminals and the shipping industry at large.
