Royal Boskalis Westminster has acquired maritime emergency response specialist Ardent Americas. The latter is a leading player under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 for the provision of marine emergency response services in the United States.
Under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA90) programme, there is a statutory requirement from the United States Coast Guard that shipowners trading in US waters must have an agreement in place with approved emergency response companies for the provision of salvage and marine firefighting services. Ardent Americas’ OPA90 program covers approximately 500 shipowners encompassing over 4000 vessels.
Ardent Americas was established in 2015 following the merger of Svitzer Salvage and Titan Salvage, operates from Houston and Fort Lauderdale in the US and was a subsidiary of Ardent Global Marine Services, headquartered in IJmuiden, the Netherlands.
US salvage market
Through this acquisition, Boskalis seeks to strengthen its existing position in the US maritime salvage market. Boskalis currently provides OPA90 services in the US with Donjon-Smit through its subsidiary Smit Salvage and its joint venture partner Donjon Marine.
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