The temporary consortium of companies composed of the lead company Pb Tankers, CoSeMa (Compagnia Servizi Marittimi Srl, a subsidiary of Mama Shipping), and Ships Surveys and Services has won the tender issued by the Istituto di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale di Trieste for the ship management of the oceanographic vessel Laura Bassi. The latter is technically a Polar/Subsea Support Vessel, with ICE 05 E0 class notation, used for regular research activities, particularly in Antarctica.
The procedure has a value of over 62 million euros and aims to award a three-year contract, with an option to renew for another two years (the previous management involved a 3+1-year agreement).
The trio Pb Tankers – Cosema – Ships Surveys and Services prevailed over two other contenders. Navium is the name of the consortium that had already participated in the 2021 tender (from which it was later excluded due to the excessively high amount of its bid), with the lead company Adria Ferries, supported by the entire Frittelli Maritime group of Ancona and Finship Srl, a company based in Bari led by Roberto Pirolo, whose experience includes managing the Cnr’s vessel G. Dallaporta.
The third contender was Argo Srl, a company active in the ship management business, where it has specialized partly due to work previously carried out for the Laura Bassi. The Pozzuoli-based company was the first to take care of the ‘icebreaker’ vessel when it was acquired by OGS in 2019, at the time under a one-year contract.
Regarding the winning consortium Rti Oceano, it is entirely composed of Italian entities: Pb Tankers (a company owned by the Barbaro family) specializes in maritime transport with Medium Range (MR) tankers, Mama Shipping and its subsidiary Compagnia Servizi Marittimi Srl (headed by Marcello Pica) handles technical management and crew, while Ships Surveys and Services (D’Amato family) has extensive experience in the technical management of bulk carriers.
At the end of January 2023, the oceanographic vessel Laura Bassi broke an important record by reaching the southernmost point in the world ever reached by sea. This achievement occurred during the oceanographic campaign of the 38th Italian Expedition of the National Research Program in Antarctica, managed by Enea (Agenzia nazionale per le nuove tecnologie, l’energia e lo sviluppo economico sostenibile) and Cnr (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche).
