Skudeneshavn, Norway-based OSV operator Solstad Offshore announced a contract extension for anchor-handling tug supply (AHTS) Far Statesman with ENI on 2 January.
The extension, for approximately five months, will see the vessel continue its work started in July 2018 supporting ENI’s deepwater drilling campaign offshore Indonesia.
Far Statesman has been contracted by ENI in Indonesia since July 2018. The AHTS was built by Vard Langsten in 2013 to a UT 731 CD design and measures 87.4 m in length by 21 m in breadth with a maximum draft of 7.8 m and a dwt of 3,954. It has a total BHP of 24,371 and a bollard pull of 257 tonnes.
The contract extension comes just over two weeks after Solstad Offshore (SOFF) disclosed on 20 December it had agreed improved payment terms with creditors for six-months following discussions regarding improving the group’s liquidity and long-term plans.
The company said in an announcement “SOFF is pleased to announce that further to these discussions, certain of the SOFF-group companies and their secured financial creditors have today agreed to suspend and defer payments of principal and interest under the Companies' loan agreements until 20 June 2019.”
The announcement also noted the suspensions and deferrals do not apply to the financial debt of Solship 1 Invest AS or Solship 3 Invest AS and associated silo-subsidiaries, and the scope of the suspensions and deferrals could be widened at a later stage.
Commenting on the improved payment terms in inhouse magazine Solships, chief executive Lars Peder Solstad said “This has put us in a stronger position to negotiate a long-term solution for the company in a controlled way.
“After years with a poor market, measures had to be taken.”
Mr Solstad also noted that while 2018 saw improvements on 2017 and he anticipates 2019 will be better still, rate levels for Solstad Offshore’s services are still unsustainable and the recovery is taking longer than had been hoped for.
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