.jpg){kind=logo}
What is a “Gabarra” in Venezuela?
OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY · VENEZUELA
By Carlos Gonzalez | Venezuela Country Manager
The flat-bottomed vessel that carries drilling rigs, cranes and work crews out over the water. In English, it's called a barge.
A barge is a flat-bottomed cargo vessel with a wide beam and shallow draft. In most cases it has no propulsion of its own: a tug tows it from the bow, or a pusher boat drives it from the stern. In Venezuela it is called a gabarra, a word Spanish took from the Basque kabarra.
What defines it is not its size but its concept: a hull designed to float while carrying weight, not to sail on its own. In Venezuela that trait made it indispensable, because much of the country's oil lies not under dry land but under water.
How it is built
Its defining
feature is the flat bottom, with no pronounced keel. This lets it work in shallow water and gives it a large bearing surface relative to its volume, so it can carry very heavy loads without sitting too deep. Seen from above, it is usually rectangular, with a square stern and a raked bow, angled upward to reduce towing resistance.
The hull is welded steel, divided into sections by watertight bulkheads. This layout serves two purposes: if one section floods, the others keep the vessel afloat, and the same compartments work as ballast tanks, filled or emptied to adjust draft and trim to the load.
The deck is the working area and is reinforced to bear concentrated loads. To hold position over a single point, the barge sets several anchors in different directions; in shallow water it can also lower spuds, steel posts driven into the bottom.
Types of barges in Venezuela
Several types of barges work side by side in a lake operation. They share the same basic hull; what changes is the equipment on deck and, with it, the job they do in the field. The most common are:
Drilling barges: carry a complete rig to drill new wells.
Workover barges: smaller rigs that repair, recomplete or plug existing wells.
Crane barges: lift heavy loads for platform and pipeline construction and maintenance.
Accommodation barges: quarters, galley and offices for crews working far from shore.
Flat-deck cargo barges: move pipe, equipment and materials between docks and locations.
Tank barges: carry fuel, fresh water, drilling fluids or crude.
The lake operating area
More than 15,000 wells have been drilled in the Lake Maracaibo basin since 1914, and a large share of them sit inside the lake itself, in what the local industry calls lago afuera. That activity is concentrated off the Eastern Shore, whose docks serve as the logistics bases from which tugs, crew boats and barges set out.
The work sequence is always the same: tugs tow the barge to its location, where it is anchored, buoyed and lined up with the well before work begins. Then comes the move: anchors up, equipment secured and a tow to the next site, a delicate operation because a barge under tow is a tall, heavy structure with no steering of its own.
Comments