Subsea 7 to Return PLSV to Owner After Vessel Switch Off Brazil
Subsea engineering, construction and services company Subsea 7 has agreed to substitute a vessel chartered from Solstad Offshore for its Pipelay Support Vessel (PLSV) in a day-rate contract with Petrobras, offshore Brazil.
Petrobras and Subsea 7 have agreed to substitute the owned PLSV Seven Mar for the chartered PLSV Normand Seven in the existing Normand Seven contract. The substitution will be made in late June.
The contract for Seven Mar, a 2001-built construction / flex-lay vessel, was recently terminated earlier than expected due to Brazilian maritime law which prioritizes Brazilian-flagged ships over international vessels of a similar specification. As a consequence, the operating license for Seven Mar expired.
There are no other significant changes to the contractual terms and conditions, the company noted on Thursday.
As a consequence of this substitution, Subsea 7 will return Normand Seven to its owner, Solstad Offshore, at the end of its fixed-term charter agreement. Subsea 7 used the first of a total of five yearly options for Solstad’s Normand Seven in March 2015 and the extension became effective in September 2015.
To remind, Subsea 7 informed on Wednesday that up to five vessels are scheduled to leave the current active fleet by early 2017, based on stacking owned vessels and returning chartered vessels when existing contracts expire.
The company also said it plans to resize its global workforce to approximately 8,000 by early 2017, down from the current level of 9,200.
The 130m long Normand Seven is a construction / flexlay (horizontal) vessel fitted with a flexible pipelay system capable of operating in water depths of up to 2,000m with a top tension capacity of 300t. The vessel was delivered in 2007 by Ulstein Verft in Norway.
