Defence has selected ST Marine as the preferred tenderer to convert the Royal Australian Navy tanker HMAS Success to be double hulled.
The work will be carried out in Singapore, where the ship has a scheduled visit while on deployment in Asia, and involves the double hulling of the HMAS Success to meet International Maritime Organisation standards for environmental protection against oil spills.
ST Marine’s tender came in under budget.
As a result, funds saved on this project will be re-directed towards the priority repair and maintenance work required on HMAS Kanimbla and HMAS Manoora, for which a precautionary operational pause was recently initiated by the Chief of Navy.
This work will occur concurrently at Garden Island, Sydney.
Overseas companies were allowed to bid for the work on HMAS Success as this was a one-off project and no Australian company had ever undertaken work of this type.
The regular and on-going repair and maintenance of HMAS Success will continue to occur in Australia.