Rimorchiatori Malta Offshore Ltd, a sister company to Tug Malta Ltd, has taken delivery of the new anchor handling supply vessel A.H. Valletta, a vessel built by the Spanish shipyards Astilleros Armon, in the port of Vigo in northwest Spain.

Following a period of final sea trials, the A.H. Valletta left for Brazil on November 4, where it will join the Brazilian fleet of the Rimorchiatori Riuniti Group on a minimum four-year charter to the Brazilian company Petrobras.

The A.H. Valletta is the eighth, and so far the most powerful vessel, that the Rimorchiatori Riuniti Group is chartering to the Brazilian oil drilling giant Petrobras. The A.H. Valletta is a Moss 424 MK III design, with four main engines developing 19,000 bhp, and a bollard pull of 210 tonnes. The vessel cost over €45 million to build and equip. She now officially forms part of the fleet in Brazil managed by Finarge Armamento Genovese Srl, the offshore arm of the Rimorchiatori Riuniti Group.

Rimorchiatori Malta Offshore Ltd and Tug Malta Ltd are subsidiaries of Rimorchiatori Malta Ltd, the holding company established in Malta by Rimorchiatori Riuniti SpA of Genova.

Rimorchiatori Riuniti plan to continue investing in offshore vessels as this industry is expected to keep on growing rapidly, especially in the Mediterranean, and particularly along the North African coast.

The Rimorchiatori Riuniti Group declared from the moment it bought Tug Malta in July 2007 that the intention was to recruit local STCW-qualified ocean-going seafarers to work on the A.H. Valletta, and on other similar vessels within the group. However, even though various calls for applications have been issued, no qualified local seafarers have applied.

The group has committed itself to assist the Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology, and specifically its Maritime Institute, to develop as centres of excellence in order to provide the necessary training so that eventually crew members for the Rimorchiatori fleet can be found from among Maltese mariners rather than having to look elsewhere to man the vessels.

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