A second year of success for Ardent

Ardent was formed in May 2015 with the merger of Svitzer Salvage, part of the Maersk Group and Titan Salvage, part of Crowley Holdings Inc. The new company is on a 50/50 basis of Svitzer and Crowley.

Ardent reports that despite its initial focus on implementing the merger and facing challenging market conditions it has successfully executed 125 contracts over its first two-year period, Ardent CEO Peter Pietka commenting: “Salvage operations are inherently risk filled and completing 125 contracts without a single lost time incident is a testament to the professionalism of our teams.”

‘Significant commercial momentum’ is expected as Ardent continues establishing itself and it has reorganised its business into two largely self-sustained business pillars; the emergency management pillar (emergency preparedness and response) and the projects pillar (wreck removal, offshore decommissioning and subsea services). Personnel developments include the appointment of Oliver Timofei to the role of director of emergency management and Jon Minshall as director of projects.

The new structure is intended to ensure Ardent can retain focus on its original core business while increasingly offering adjacent services, including within an offshore context. Mr Pietka explains further: “The new structure is intended to ensure that we for both business areas have a ‘fit-for-purpose’ processes, resources and culture which will enable us to serve the respective customer segments even better than today.” Adding: “Whereas we have done well in the market place it is also true that over the past two years, a tremendous amount of focus has gone into internal issues related to the merger implementation and the recent organizational restructuring. We look forward to the next stage.”

Several milestones of note mark Ardent’s first two years. The largest wreck removal project of 2016 involved removal of the Troll Solution jack-up from the Bay of Campeche, Mexico. Following an accident, the jack-up collapsed and sank in 30m of water and equipment was mobilised globally for the job (including the crane barge Conquest MB-1 previously used in the Costa Concordia wreck removal).

Also in 2016, a Vessel Response Plan was activated following a fire on the passenger vessel Caribbean Fantasy in Puerto Rico. After tugs from one of Ardent’s OPA-90 partners brought the vessel safely into port, a fire team led by Ardent salvage master Guy Wood boarded the vessel to extinguish the fire. The US Coast Guard had earlier evacuated more than 500 passengers and crew from the vessel.

Lilla Edet in Sweden was the focus of attention for Ardent earlier this year when following a collision, the loaded cargo vessel Sternö came to rest with a 54’ list against a jetty structure. A parbuckling operation was employed to right the vessel allowing cargo removal and refloating.

A more recent project was where Ardent was engaged to remove the wreck of the sunken general cargo vessel Fluvius Tamar from the English Channel. Following a long and complex operation carried out in a busy shipping lane the vessel was successfully refloated in one piece and towed to Rotterdam.

Other events include in 2016, the forming of a partnership with Spanish salvage, engineering and commercial diving company Ardentia Marine Group, a company with strong links with the Spanish Coast Guard. When the Crystal Serenity, with over 1,700 passengers and crew on board became the first luxury cruise vessel to cross the Northwest Passage from Anchorage to New York City, Ardent supported the journey with its Global Preparedness Cover.

Another example of where salvage companies expand their operations from purely responsive services was where Ardent signed an agreement with the UK’s Maritime & Coastguard Agency for emergency towage off the Scottish north-west coast. The Marnavi-owned, 139tbp AHTS Ievoli Black was employed to provide this vital service taking over from the previous ETV Herakles.

By Peter Barker