Honolulu’s Smith Maritime acquired
A New Jersey-based transportation company is acquiring local oil-barge operator Smith Maritime Ltd.
K-Sea Transportation Partners L.P. said yesterday it has agreed to buy both Smith Maritime and Seattle-based Sirius Maritime LLC for about $205 million.
Gordon Smith, president and owner of Smith Maritime of Honolulu, is also one of the three owners of Sirius. Smith is expected to join the management of K-Sea.
Smith said all 75 employees at Smith Maritime in Honolulu should be retained under the new ownership.
In Hawaii, Smith Maritime has a carrying capacity of about 300,000 barrels, serving clients such as Tesoro Corp., Hawaiian Electric Co. and Aloha Petroleum.
The sales are expected to close in July or early August.
K-Sea says with the additional tank barges from the acquisitions as part of the fleet, it will boost its barrel-carry capacity by 22 percent to 4.3 million barrels.
Combined, the Honolulu and Seattle operations include 11 petroleum tank barges and 10 tugboats, which offer 777,000 barrels of capacity, 86 percent of which are double-hulled.