Offshore service vessel provider Farstad Shipping concentrates its oil service activity in Australia to Perth and will close down the management office in Melbourne.

The company said on Tuesday that, consequently, the Australian onshore organization will be reduced from 65 to around 30 employees.

“Farstad-Shipping-664×439 has participated in the development of the offshore oil and gas industry in Australia since the 1990s, and has become one of the leading oil service companies in the region. To secure this position also in the future, we are now transferring all of our activities to Perth, making it our new headquarters in Australia,” says Karl-Johan Bakken, CEO of Farstad Shipping.

Perth will then facilitate both the headquarters and the operations center, in addition to the company’s training and offshore simulation center.

The background for this move now is the challenging market situation with low oil price and the subsequent sharp reduction in offshore activity, Farstad explained.

“It is with regret that we have to lay off dedicated and highly skilled employees, but it is the unfortunate result of a necessary capacity adjustment,” Bakken says.

Bakken further says that the transfer of activity from Melbourne to Perth is a necessary step in preparing Farstad Shipping for the future.

“In addition to working on establishing an overall refinancing plan, we are continuously working on structural solutions in order to secure our competitiveness and to align with the market and the needs of our clients,” Bakken concludes.

Farstad Shipping Pte. Ltd. in Singapore, which previously has been reporting to Australia, is now to be directly related to the Head Office in Aalesund.

Source: www.offshoreenergytoday.com