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Shipping company PT Rig Tenders Indonesia plans to buy two more large-sized and modern accommodation barges for crews this year to take advantage of contracts in the oil and gas industry, an executive said on Thursday.

Mukhnizam Bin Mahmud, a director of Rig Tenders, said the company had set aside internal cash combined with loans worth about $30 million to buy the new vessels.

“We are planning to expand our vessel fleet this year ... buying bigger and modern barges,” he said.

Mukhnizam said the company had received one accommodation barge on Monday, which had been ordered last year. With two more vessels to purchase this year, the company would own five accommodation barges in total.

He said the company planned to sell five older vessels this year, after selling another five in 2008.

As of December, the company owned 58 vessels, of which 35 were sea transporters and 23 were offshore supporting service vessels.

Meanwhile, Dick S. Sapi’ie, president director of Rig Tenders, said the company had secured contract extensions from PT Adaro Indonesia and PT Arutmin Indonesia for coal transportation.

He declined to reveal the value of the contracts, but said they had extended with Adaro until 2012 while the Arutmin contract was to be renewed on an annual basis.

Clients of Rig Tenders also include BP West Java, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (Cnooc), Chevron Indonesia, Kangean Energy Indonesia, and Total E & P Indonesia .

Mukhnizam said the recharter service was the main contributor to the company’s earnings, accounting for 98.5 percent of revenue.

Rig Tenders booked revenue of $12.4 million and a net loss of $174,189 in the first quarter. It swung to a $141,372 foreign exchange loss after recording a $56,561 gain in the year-earlier period.