Naviera Integral

QUALITY

SPEED IN MEXICO

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OFFSHORE QUALITY ME XICO SPEED AND IN

For the past 35 years, Mexico’s Naviera Integral has been faithfully serving the offshore oil sector in Mexico and Latin America. Having grown its fleet from a humble three boats to a veritable force of 37, the company has earned its position as one of the leading providers within the region’s offshore crewing and supply market. Chief Commercial Officer Cesar Vera Mendez chatted with Richard Hagan about the business of boating to and from offshore installations.

Based in Mexico City, Naviera Integral supplies vessel chartering and related services for the offshore energy sector in Mexico and locations throughout Latin America.

The company was established as far back as 1987 by Juan Pablo Vega Arriaga, who remains President and General Manager of Naviera Integral to this day. Mr Vega’s ambition was to create a company that would provide vessel chartering services to the highest safety and efficiency standards. He aimed to eventually become the supplier of choice within the sector. And by all accounts, that is precisely what he has achieved.

Building the fleet

Starting with only three boats, Naviera Integral made an early decision to appoint the famed Dutch shipyard Damen to build out its fleet. This decision would later prove to be a key factor in the company’s success, as Chief Commercial Officer Cesar Vera Mendez pointed out: “Our collaboration with Damen became a long-term shared learning

experience, as we both learned about the Mexican offshore market’s specific needs. Every new ship we ordered from Damen incorporated design improvements based on the performance of the preceding vessels. It’s been a process of continuous innovation.”

Today, Naviera Integral owns 37 vessels, of which 97% were manufactured by Damen. The fleet consists of crew boats, fast supply vessels, and platform supply vessels. Crew boats do exactly what the name suggests: they specialise in the transfer of crew to and from offshore installations, and they’re also able to carry light cargo loads.

Fast supply vessels, often known as simply FSVs, are the express couriers of the offshore environment. Equipped with high-efficiency hulls, Naviera Integral’s FSVs provide a vital cargo and personnel transport service to and from offshore assets. Its platform supply vessels (or PSVs), meanwhile, are very large, very specialised deep-sea vessels designed specif ically to perform a variety of functions to support offshore installations. This includes bulk cargo and equipment delivery and even the transfer of liquids. PSVs and their specialised equipment are often also called on in case of an emergency to perform rescue and recovery operations.

High-tech shipbuilding

Naviera Integral’s extensive experience in vessel design and specification was put on full display in 2020 when it initiated a pro -

ject to build a new, state-of-the-art FSV to provide greater levels of service quality to the deepwater sector. The one-of-a-kind vessel, named Leonardo was built by Damen and features a host of passenger comforts and high-tech, specialised equipment that make it and its sister ship, unique jewels in the Naviera Integral fleet, as Mr Vera explained: “Leonardo is built on a Damen 5009 Axe Bow which is designed for speed, efficiency, seakeeping and crew and cargo capacity.

“Though the hull design substantially reduces pitching while underway, we’ve also installed a VEEM Marine VG1000 SD gyrostabiliser which provides advanced stabilisation of the vessel. This significantly improves passenger comfort, particularly at zero speed, while also increasing overall safety significantly.”

The VEEM gyrostabiliser is not common on workboats of this kind but its inclusion on the boat speaks to Naviera Integral’s industry-leading commitment to exceptionally high customer service. The stabiliser’s performance has been so successful that scientific testing proved a roll reduction of 80% while at zero speed and 60% while underway. Thus, in combination with the pitch-reducing axe bow, Leonardo’s passengers can look forward to a significantly smoother journey versus competitor vessels.

In addition to its unique hull design and its gyrostabiliser, Leonardo also boasts

NAVIERA INTEGRAL I PROFILE

firefighting systems, rescue capabilities including a six-passenger tender with deployment crane, a Jason’s cradle (a special climbing net hung over the side for rescue operations), 150 lifejackets and blankets, and dynamic positioning systems. It also has a professional infirmary fully equipped for an emergency and permanently staffed by a physician.

Passengers are especially well cared for thanks to Leonardo’s guest facilities. They ride in total luxury in 35 fully-reclining business class seats equipped with advanced infotainment facilities. There’s also a fully stocked coffee and snack bar, but according to Mr Vera, the coffee and snack bar are seldom fully utilised: “The seats are so comfortable that the passengers don’t even notice the length of the ride - most people fall asleep!”

Leonardo has been such a success with Naviera Integral’s charter client to whom Leonardo is assigned, that the client has been able to reduce their usual costly fleet of Sikorsky transport helicopters from three down to the mandatory minimum of one.

Naviera Integral has upgraded Don Julio, a second Damen 5009 with similar specifications as Leonardo. Don Julio is currently assigned to a client in Suriname

Well-oiled machines

A fleet of 37 vessels requires a lot of maintenance and in this respect, Naviera Integral has built robust maintenance and logistics infrastructure to ensure maximum uptime of its boats.

While Naviera Integral’s head office is located in Mexico City, its 700 staff are spread across the head office and its main operations centre, which is located in the middle of the offshore industry action at the port of Ciudad del Carmen in the state of Campeche. Here, Naviera Integral and its sister companies operate a waterfront space with a length of 100m - the largest for its sector.

Naviera Integral’s main service centre is located here, hosting the company’s certified Caterpillar, Cummins and Detroit Diesel mechanics. These highly skilled teams perform daily, regular maintenance on the company’s boats to keep them running at their peak.

“We are able to test entire engines on site, and we have a warehouse containing critical parts,” said Mr Vera. “Hence, we’re able to rapidly respond to unplanned maintenance issues. This results in technically zero downtime for our customers.”

The company is also very proud of its very low staff turnover, which Mr Vera attributed to Naviera Integral’s carefully managed staffing policies: “In a company as large as ours, you might expect to see some challenges with crew. But we’ve grown organically, and our personnel have grown from within and with us and thus we’re able to provide them with a career path. They’ve developed careers that allow them to operate

across any of our vessels with total confidence. Plus, our workforce is enriched by a constant flow of newly-graduated as well as mid-career naval engineers, captains, machinists and others.”

The battle against emissions

As with any fleet owner today, emissions reduction is a major focus at Naviera Integral and its efforts have borne promising fruit.

A particular example is its FSVs and their arrow-like wave-piercing hulls. “They’re designed to utilise smaller, more efficient engines,” noted Mr Vera. “A similarly sized FSV would use a 7,500hp engine arrangement, whereas our FSVs only need 6,000hp. That’s a huge reduction in emissions.

“All of our vessels also each have a magnetic particle aligner that results in a 4% reduction in fuel consumption,” he continued. “In the quest for additional improvements, we’ve incorporated electric motors, and are considering batteries and solar panels in our PSVs. We’re also carefully looking into hydrogen as a fuel source, but we have to be cautious because both

the technology and the fuel supply are not yet readily available for this to be a viable option right now. But we’re going in that direction.”

Meanwhile, Naviera Integral will implement an exciting social responsibility programme involving oyster farming. “It’s very socially beneficial for the community because it provides work opportunities and an overall economic benefit for them,”

Mr Vera said. “We’re still the main economic driver in our community, however, because while fishing used to be an important career path for the community, the fish stocks are no longer sustainable.

“The oyster farm is just one example of further projects that we plan to roll out,” he added. “We’re working on this as we speak.”

Mr Vera concluded our conversation by highlighting some of his favourite aspects of life at Naviera Integral: “I really enjoy my team in the commercial department, it consists of six professionals. They’re truly committed, caring people. Being part of what the company is doing is very exciting, too. And I love the fact that it’s a 100% Mexican company. We’re all part of an extended family!” n