BELFAST – Tugboat operator Arthur Fournier is returning to Belfast.

Fournier owned and operated Pen-Bay Towing and its fleet of tugboats from Marshall Wharf for a decade before selling the company to John Worth and Duke Tomlin in 1988. Now he has bought the company back. Fournier has changed the company’s name from Maine Port Towboats of the Tomlin-Worth era to Penobscot Bay Tractor Tug Co.

Fournier, who also operates tugboat services in Portland and on Cape Cod Canal, said he was happy to be back in Belfast. He said his sons Douglas and Patrick will oversee the Belfast operation. The new company will retain the existing Maine Port Towboats crews and employees, he said.

“I’m looking forward to coming back to Belfast,” Fournier said Monday. “The kids grew up in Belfast, they were in the schools, and a lot of their friends are still up there. A lot of chums of theirs are still around the area. My wife, Beth, is from Saturday Cove in Northport.”

Although he moved out of Belfast many years ago, Fournier’s company maintained an office in the Maine Port Towboats building at Marshall Wharf. Fournier said he would continue to lease office space in the building, along with the wharf.

Fournier said he decided to expand his operations north because he believes shipping will be on the upswing in the coming years. He said soaring fuel prices are making it more economical to ship goods by boat rather than truck.

“What you can put in 100 trucks you can put in one shipload,” he said.

Fournier predicted that shipments of oil, gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to storage areas in Searsport and Bucksport will continue to rise. He said the new dry-cargo facility at Mack Point operated by Sprague Energy also should see a boost in business during the coming years.

“Ports all over the country are growing and I see the same happening here. Searsport will grow because all ports are growing,” he said. “Shipping by water is becoming more and more state of the art because of the price of fuel.”

Fournier has already started upgrading the Belfast tugboat fleet.

The tractor-tug Fournier Tractor has already arrived in port. Tractor tugs are smaller and more powerful than traditional tugs, as well as more maneuverable.

“They are state of the art,” he said. “They are extremely maneuverable. They can go in circles and move in any direction without losing any power.”

Fournier said he plans to sell the tugs Fort Point and Mack Point and to purchase a large “twin screw” tug. He said another Maine Port tug, the Verona Island, was sold recently and is now moving barges in the Caribbean Sea.

Belfast is not all fond memories for Fournier, however. In April 1985, his son William, then 22, and Danny Govoni, 20, of Winthrop, Mass., collapsed and died while attempting to rescue co-worker Richard Lisa, 22, of Searsport, who had collapsed after climbing inside a barge. The three employees of Pen-Bay Towing were overcome by fumes in the hull of the sealed barge.

Fournier operated the Pen-Bay Towing Co. from 1977 to 1988 when he sold the company to Worth and Tomlin. Worth sold his share of the company to Tomlin three years ago and is now enjoying the academic life as an instructor at Maine Maritime Academy. Attempts to reach Tomlin were unsuccessful.