Texas Border Business
After over 20 years of service in Seatrium AmFEL’s shipyard at the Port of Brownsville, the Solomon P. Ortiz dry dock was retired in May and the contract for its dismantling and recycling was awarded to neighboring SA Recycling-SteelCoast.
The dry dock helped AmFELS land important projects supporting thousands of jobs in the Rio Grande Valley and solidified the company as the foremost offshore shipyard on the Gulf of Mexico capable of designing, constructing, and repairing mobile drilling rigs and offshore oil platforms.
Seatrium AmFELS Senior Marketing Manager Khon-Whey Tay said the dry dock was vital to several projects over the years including the construction of the Helix Well Ops Q4000 DP3 Well Intervention Vessel, a semisubmersible vessel designed for well intervention and construction in water depths to 10,000 ft. After the vessel’s completion and delivery, the Q4000 returned to AmFELs shipyard for maintenance.
Built in the 1940s to service U.S. Navy vessels, the dock was formerly known as the USS Los Alamos, AFDB-7. In 1991, the Port of Brownsville and AmFELS agreed to work together to acquire a dry dock for use at the shipyard. With the help of Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz, the port identified a floating dry dock in the James River Reserves Fleet in Virginia. The dock had the capability of bringing ships and other vessels out of the water to be inspected and repaired.
In 1993, Congressman Ortiz introduced and successfully passed legislation to transfer the title of the dry dock to the Brownsville Navigation District. In 1994, the port and AmFELS entered into a purchase contract and operating agreement for the dry dock’s transportation to the port, installation, operation, and maintenance. The Brownsville Navigation District Board of Commissioners officially renamed the dry dock ‘Solomon P. Ortiz” in recognition of the congressman’s efforts to acquire the dock. Within a few months of the dry dock becoming operational in 1995, 300 new jobs were created to keep up with AmFELS’ increasing workload.
In 2016 AmFELS, the port’s largest employer, pivoted from the oil and gas industry into Jones Act shipbuilding, making big waves in the industry after landing contracts to build containerships, an offshore wind turbine installation vessel, the largest high-specification Trailing Suction Hopper Dredge (TSHD) in the U.S., among other projects.
While the Solomon P. Ortiz will no longer service Seatrium AmFELS, Tay explained that maintenance of offshore rigs continues at the shipyard.
“Seatrium AmFELS remains committed to providing upgrades and repair services to rigs and vessels in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Tay.