December 19 - Fairstar Heavy Transport has been awarded a USD2.8 million contract by Northern Offshore to transport the jack-up drilling rig Energy Exerter from Malta to Northern Europe in January 2012.
Fairstar's open stern, semi-submersible vessel, Fjell is expected to load the Energy Exeter in early January and sail immediately afterwards towards a Northern European port to be determined at a later date by Northern Offshore.
Hylke van den Berg , director of client services for Fairstar commented: "We appreciate the confidence Northern Offshore has shown in Fairstar. Safely crossing the Bay of Biscay in January requires careful planning and experienced seamanship. Our team at Fairstar has a special connection with the Energy Exerter and we will ensure to use the same care on board Fjell for this voyage as was demonstrated on Fjord two years ago when we safely transported the rig from Kirkenes, Norway to Greece."
Willem Out, chief operating officer at Fairstar added: "Fleet utilisation is now showing a significant improvement in the last few months. The Fjord is underway to the Gulf of Mexico with the Oando Energy Services' rig Respect. Fjord will proceed to Angola to commence its contract with DSME after discharging the Respect.
"Upon completion of the DSME contract, Fjord will perform her first scheduled voyage for the Gorgon LNG Project. During 2011 we have safely transported a variety of drilling rigs for ENSCO, Hercules, Nabors, and Oando . Northern Offshore has been a great client for our company over the years. Even though our future strategy will focus our resources on multi-voyage energy infrastructure projects like Gorgon, Fjord and Fjell have consistently demonstrated their competitiveness as two of the most modern and versatile semi-submersible ships in the global fleet."
Ingmar den Blanken, treasurer at Fairstar stated, "We welcome this contract as an unexpected contribution to earnings in 2012. Both cash flow and EBITDA will increase in the first quarter above our previous expectations."
