Asia Pacific has become the latest happy hunting ground for Bergen-headquartered construction vessel operator DOF Subsea, which already employs 220 professionals at its project management and engineering centre in Perth, Western Australia. Well established in the North Sea and Brazil, where it now has five construction vessels, the company has rapidly put together a big Asia Pacific presence and secured multiple contracts in the region in February alone to the tune of $30 million.
The Skandi Hawk RSV, on charter from DOF Rederi, will start operations in the region following installation of a crane and subsea systems in Singapore. A letter of intent has been signed for the first project securing 68 days of firm commitment plus options. Skandi Hawk replaces the Geosea, recently committed to Petrobras in Brazil under a five-year contract, in the Asia Pacific subsea fleet.
DOF Subsea reports that the Skandi Hercules continues to perform well in the region with project commitments in place securing utilisation through to July. New project awards have been received since year end for operations in Australia and Southeast Asia. The newbuild DSV Skandi Singapore continues to build a strong reputation in the region, having completed projects in Vietnam, Indonesia and New Zealand. The vessel is committed to projects in both Australia and the Philippines generating strong utilisation into June.
The DOF Subsea global fleet has gone from a dozen ships to 70 within ten years. Of the company's 24 construction vessels, many of them bearing the Skandi prefix, no fewer than 12 are on long-term charter with the rest operating on a project by project basis.
‘We believe our ships have a particular niche in the market and see ourselves as a supplier of integrated subsea solutions,' says John Baxter, who joined the company from Subsea 7 as EVP business acquisition last year. He says he was attracted to the company by its strategy of having a young, high-end fleet. ‘The average age of our construction vessels is 6.8 years, which is very young, and there has been no compromising in the selection of onboard equipment. And our people know how to run and operate these ships efficiently. We have robust systems and are very proud of our safety record. I think that's a winning formula. Clients are constantly moving the barriers and thresholds of vessel expectations higher.'
DOF Subsea is also asking its anchor handlers to do more in the way of light construction work. It now has three advanced anchor handlers known in-house as installer class vessels, each 110m long with a 1000m2 deck and equipped with 500-600t winch capacity, a 150-250t AHC crane, moonpool and twin integrated work-class ROVs. ‘These are versatile ships and we've already stretched the capability limit for vessels this size with the Skandi Hercules laying flexibles in 800m of water, albeit in a fairly benign Asia Pacific environment,' says Baxter. He admits that approach wouldn't work in North Sea conditions, adding: ‘We're not being gung-ho, or taking substantial risk with these kind of projects, just taking a slightly different approach and being a little more creative with our engineering solutuions.'
Another of the installer class vessels, Skandi Skalten, completed a permanent mooring installation in one mobilization entirely on its own in the Gulf of Mexico last year. And the third such vessel, Skandi Skansen, undertook one of the North Sea's first diverless decommissioning jobs on the Ivanhoe and Rob Roy fields for operator Hess. The programme, successfully completed last September with project management and engineering support from DOF Subsea subsidiary CSL, involved engineering and recovery of eight flexible risers, four mid-water arches, two dynamic chemical injection umbilicals and associated structures. OE
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