Multraship helping Bourgas realise its potential

LEADING salvage and towage company Multraship is working with Belgian dredging specialist Dredging International to dredge a channel to the new terminal being engineered at the strategic Bulgarian port of Bourgas in order to enable panamax-size vessels to operate there, without the need to lighter outside the port area. Multraship recently undertook two harbour towage projects, involving the positioning of two cranes, bringing to eight the total number of such projects carried out in Bourgas. The positioning of the two cranes will significantly increase the efficiency of the port, and the service to operators. Trade through Bourgas increased by more than twenty per cent last year as the port continued to build on its natural deep harbour advantages. The new terminal is scheduled to be completed in stages over a period from 2008 to 2011. And there are plans to build two oil pipelines, one for connection to US consumers and the other for western European markets. Multraship set up operations in Bourgas in 2005 after buying Bourgas Tug Services as part of a targeted business expansion plan and as a demonstration of its faith in Bulgaria and in the greater Black Sea region. It has a staff there of more than seventy people, and a fleet of seven vessels stationed in the area. Since January 2005, its market share of the harbour towage at the port has grown by more than five-fold Earlier this month, Multraship co-operated in a national search and rescue training exercise at Bourgas, in which its vessels Multratug 8 and Multratug 25 provided fire-fighting assistance to an oil tanker on board which a simulated explosion had taken place. The exercise was deemed a major success, and was commended by the Governor of Bourgas. Multraship’s Pepijn Nuijten says, “We are very happy to be in Bourgas, and at the forefront of what is happening there and in the wider Black Sea region.” l Multraship draws on more than ninety years of experience in the salvage and towage industries. Its core operations include salvage, wreck removal, harbour towage, coastal and deep-sea towage, services to the dredging and offshore industries and support for inland navigation. It operates and manages a fleet of thirty-one tugs, salvage vessels, floating sheerlegs and other craft equipped with modern towage, salvage and fire-fighting equipment and manned by experienced and highly-trained masters and crew. www.multraship.com For more information contact: Pepijn Nuijten Multraship Towage & Salvage +31 (0) 115 645 000 directie@multraship.com