Maritime Partners Announces Acquisition of West Gulf Marine Ltd.
Industry Veteran Jacob Brown Selected to Lead West Gulf Marine
NEW ORLEANS, October 9, 2025 – Maritime Partners, LLC (“Maritime Partners”), a leading provider of maritime solutions primarily focused on Jones Act vessels, has announced the recent purchase of Texas-based West Gulf Marine Ltd. (“West Gulf Marine”), a family-owned shipyard with a strategic position in the inland tank barge market niche.
Jacob Brown, a veteran of the inland marine industry with over 20 years of leadership experience, has been selected to serve as CEO of West Gulf Marine.
“At Maritime Partners, our strategic focus is on the reliable, long-term, asset-intensive businesses that form the critical infrastructure of the US maritime industry,” said Bick Brooks, Chief Executive Officer of Maritime Partners. “Our established leadership position across maritime verticals provides us with a uniquely wide perspective to identify opportunities and synergies that are often unrealized by legacy market participants. In West Gulf Marine, we see a unique, niche investment opportunity to empower a proven player in a strategically important market segment that is deeply familiar to us and immediately additive to our core business.”
Jacob Brown commented, “I am thrilled to join West Gulf Marine and aim to sustain the standard of excellence and reliability that Bryan, Keith, and the Fiegel family have established over a period of decades. By building quality tank barges on time and on budget for players across the market, we have a critically important role to play in supporting both the US inland marine sector and the overall US industrial base.”
ABOUT MARITIME PARTNERS
Maritime Partners is a leading provider of maritime solutions. Maritime Partners manages a diversified fleet of approximately 1,800 vessels, specializing in vessels that are used in the domestic Jones Act trades. A privately held company founded in 2015, Maritime Partners provides the assets that transport the commodities that represent the primary building blocks of the domestic economy, including agricultural products, chemicals, aggregates, crude oil, and refined petroleum products. Our management team leverages more than 50 years of combined operational experience in chartering, asset management, shipbuilding, and financing across all marine asset classes.
To learn more about Maritime Partners please visit www.maritimepartnersllc.com.
ABOUT WEST GULF MARINE
Founded and headquartered in Galveston, Texas, West Gulf Marine specializes in the construction of tank barges used to transport black oil, petrochemicals, refined products, and more along the inland and intracoastal waterways, serving many of the country’s major operators, including Kirby Corp, Canal Barge Company, Enterprise Product Partners, and more.
CONTACT:
Greg Chase
Maritime Partners, LLC gchase@maritimepartnersllc.com
(504) 264-5870