Maersk Supply Service has signed a three-year contract extension with Inmarsat for its new dedicated bandwidth service Fleet Xpress, including a a dedicated bandwidth charterer service agreement.
The Danish company, which has a fleet of 40 anchor handlers, subsea support vessels and platform supply vessels deployed in Europe, the Americas, West Africa, South East Asia and Australia, is also an advocate for digital solutions that use data to optimize vessel operations, recently adopting a new energy advisory system in support of an initial target to reduce fuel consumption by 5% by 2020.
Eric Griffin, VP of Offshore Energy, Inmarsat Maritime said Maersk Supply Service's commitment to Fleet Xpress will help enable its digitalization strategy.
"The company will use our new dedicated bandwidth service to provide its charterers with their own connection through the same terminal and hardware on the vessel,” Griffin said.
Inmarsat said the new charterer plans on Fleet Xpress have been designed specifically for offshore supply vessel operators to meet the increasing connectivity requirements of third-party charterers and to run across dedicated bandwidth that does not interrupt the vessel’s primary bandwidth.
Maersk Supply Service Chief Information Officer, Thomas Stampe, said, “IT solutions that offer us and our customers greater control and flexibility over data management are key to any initiatives that seek to achieve smarter and more agile vessel performance.”
Since its launch in March 2016, Fleet Xpress has been installed on board around 7,000 vessels.