July 24 - Dockwise Shipping has secured eight new near-term contracts for the transportation of jack up drilling rigs, plus port and marine infrastructure, as well as a long-term contract for transport and installation on the Bonkot project in Thailand.
Three jack up drilling rigs will be transported to the Persian Gulf and Mexico, a sheerleg GSP to Turkey, three cargoes with dredging equipment to the USA and Algeria, and a liftboat to Trinidad. The contracts were completed in Q2 or will be carried out in Q3 2009 and Q2 2010.
Long term, Dockwise has been contracted by Hyundai Heavy Industries to transport and install the topsides of the southern production platform, by floatover, for the PTTEP Bonkot 4A central facilities in 2010. The total contract value is in excess of USD 27.5 million.
André Goedée, Chief Executive, Dockwise Ltd., said: "As we move into the second half of the year, we continue to see sustained rig mobility, and a steady flow of commercial opportunities across all market segments, Protracted negotiations and delays are a feature of the current environment, but the scale of our fleet allows us to cope with the increased pressures on planning and utilisation and Dockwise continues to provide its clients with maximum flexibility.
"For the current year, we will rely on our core heavy marine transport activities. It is encouraging to see, however, that longer term contracts are also making meaningful additions to our backlog, and this reinforces the strategic choices we have made in developing the business in recent years. We are now in pursuit of a growing number of tenders for large projects, and this will help deliver increasing visibility to our future revenues and earnings."
