Our leadership team brings nearly five decades of operational excellence in the towing vessel and barge operations, safety, and security. Strategic Towing Services, LLC offers two essential services to the Marine Transportation system. Primarily, STS offers a Barge Fleeting area service available to the inland towing network. The fleeting area is situated on the Neches River and capable of holding over 100 barges for our customers. Strategic Towing Services also operates several state-of-the-art tow boats meeting or exceeding several Federal agency regulations addressing Safety, Security and Environmental standards. These towing vessels provide our customers with the necessary horsepower to safely deliver customers barges and valuable cargoes. Refineries customers utilize our service as STS provides a safe and secure location for barges under contract to deliver their products to market. Additionally, Strategic Towing Services works together with refinery and shippers to choreograph barge movements to maximize refinery production levels.
Many Petrochemical and Oil & Gas refineries are situated throughout the Inland Waterway System and run on a 24/7 production schedule. However, the refineries must remain on a strict receiving and releasing schedule with little room for errors or delays. To do so, the Inland Waterway System utilizes Fleeting and Staging Areas (F&S) which can be best described as fee based “on-the-water parking garages”. Push boats deliver the barges into the refinery zones by pushing groupings of barges (referred to as “In-Tow”) through the Inland Waterway System. As the refineries can only process one barge at a time, the influx of new barges must be placed into a holding pattern until notified by the refineries.
Barges enter the Fleeting and Staging zones and are secured to other barges or moorings in a designated area Most barges spend 2 to 5 days in the F&S area before receiving the clearance to proceed to the refinery. Once the barge is cleared to proceed it is moved out of the F&S area and onto the refinery. Once the barge’s contents are utilized by the refinery and the barges are emptied, the barge is discharged from the refinery and sent back to the F&S area. The fleeting process is then repeated, but in a reverse manner.