Groupe Bourbon's towage, salvage and assistance division, puts a new tug into operation in the port of Nantes St Nazaire

In June this year, les abeilles put the Croisic, their new tugboat, into operation for the port authority of Nantes Saint Nazaire.

With a bollard-pull capacity of 60 tonnes, this tug was built by the Piriou yard in Brittany and meets the most demanding safety standards, notably as regards fire-fighting (FIFI 1 classification).

With the Croisic, Les Abeilles now operates 8 tugs to provide harbour towage on this site. In order to guarantee the quality of services undertaken, this fleet is managed by an on-site team of 85, including 75 seamen and an office staff of 9.

This new delivery brings the number of vessels built by Les Abeilles for major French ports to a total of 20.

The construction and start-up of this new tug reaffirms Groupe Bourbon's commitment to provide quality services with new-generation vessels, built and adapted to accompany the development of the port and its clients.

The Croisic will be officially blessed and named on September 22nd, at a ceremony in Saint Nazaire, by Madame Quimbert, the wife of the chairman of the board of directors of the Nantes Saint Nazaire port authority and of the UPACCIM (the French Union of Autonomous Ports and Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Paris, september 21th 2004

About Groupe Bourbon:

Offering services on offshore oilfields, in harbour towage, assistance missions and in bulk transport, Groupe Bourbon ranks as a major international figure in the maritime service field.
Through its subsidiary Vindémia, the group also operates in the world of mass retailing.
Listed on the "second market" of the Paris stock exchange, Groupe Bourbon employs some 8500 staff-members and registered a turnover of a billion euros in 2003.
Since February 2004, Groupe Bourbon has been classified by Euronext in the "Oil Services" category.

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Press contact Catherine Gros 01 53 70 74 70 cgros@image7.fr
Press contact Emmanuelle Flobert 01 53 70 74 61 eflobert@image7.fr

Groupe Bourbon
Financial relations Patrick Mangaud 01 40 13 86 09 patrick@mangaud.com
Press relations Christa Roqueblave 01 40 13 86 06 christagb@wanadoo.fr