Vessel charters, restructuring and management change at DOF

Norway-based DOF has gained a long-term contract for its platform supply vessel (PSV) Skandi Aukra to supply offshore oil production platforms in the UK.

The 88-m, 2012-built PSV will provide logistics services to one of the UK’s biggest oil producers Chrysaor for two years from December 2020, continuing its ongoing support of Chrysaor’s North Sea infrastructure that includes the Armada, Everest and Lomond platforms, Greater Britannia and J-Area.

Chrysaor produces around 200M barrels of oil equivalent per day and operates 14 fields across several hub facilities, including in the East Irish Sea. It is also active in gas field decommissioning in the southern North Sea.

Chrysaor has options to continue chartering Skandi Aukra for a further two years, and then one more year. If these were extended, Skandi Aukra would have continuous work until the end of 2025.

In a second contract announced this month, DOF Subsea secured an order for its high-end subsea construction vessel, Skandi Africa. The 161-m, Vard OSCV 12 design, 2015-built construction vessel is the most sophisticated vessel in the DOF fleet, according to DOF Subsea chief executive Mons Aase. The two-year contract extension is a direct continuation of its existing charter.

Skandi Africa was designed for harsh environment and deepwater subsea construction and flexlay operations. It is currently operating in Malaysia and Indonesia.

These contracts come as DOF Subsea is undergoing a restructuring, which includes changes to its management team.

DOF Subsea has promoted Martin Lundberg to acting chief financial officer starting 1 January 2021, with responsibility for the corporate finance functions.

He is replacing current chief financial officer Jan Nore, who will be head of restructuring to manage a project team securing the long-term financial future of DOF Subsea and DOF Group.

“Jan has contributed tremendously in developing our financial organisation globally and significantly supported DOF in becoming an integrated offshore company,” said Mr Aase. “He has built a strong global team and made many contributions to our subsea business.”

DOF Subsea reported an improvement in income, profits and fleet utilisation during Q3 2020. Its average fleet utilisation during June to September was 83%, of which 78% was for subsea and inspection, maintenance and repair project vessels and 95% for its long-term chartered fleet.

DOF Subsea reported operating income of Nkr1,547M (US$166.2M) in Q3 2020 compared with Nkr1,458M in the same period in 2019.

Its operating profit in Q3 2020 was Nkr707M compared with Nkr545M in Q3 2019.

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