North Sea charterers again exposed to eye-watering AHTS rates

Seabrokers said that, as expected, several North Sea charterers were forced to accept what the broker described as “eye-watering AHTS rates” on the spot market, as supply limitations left them exposed to vessel shortages and dramatic rate spikes.

The broker said the arrival of the Rosebank floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) platform in the UK – for which eight AHTS vessels were involved in hook-up operations – created a trading environment in which owners were poised to ramp up rates at the earliest opportunity.

Over the course of June, spot fixture rates peaked at £215,000 (US$284,805) in the UK, and NKr3.9M (US$393,005) in Norway, said Seabrokers in its latest monthly report on the market.

“For the month as a whole, the average charter rate for small-medium vessels (<22,000 bhp) came in at a staggering £170,830 (US$226,280), nearly 500% higher than the equivalent average for June 2026.

“Thankfully for charterers,” said Seabrokers, “many of the vessels that had been employed by Adura for Rosebank operations have now completed work, although Siem Pearl and Skandi Minder have been chartered by Adura on a longer-term basis for heading control duties until late July/early August, and a number of other vessels have project scopes lined up in July with Subsea 7 and Mermaid Subsea.”

The broker said another positive sign for charterers is an increase in the number of vessels trading the spot market following the recent arrival of Aurora Challenger, Olympic Zeus and Skandi Laser.