GC Rieber Shipping has signed a two year contract for its second subsea newbuild with the Mexican company Oceanografia. The vessel, which will be named “Polar Queen”, has recently been handed over from the Spanish shipyard Freire Shipyard, and the contract will start up in November. Three of the four vessels in the Company’s newbuilding program are thus delivered and all of them are on hire.
“With the whole fleet engaged, we are very well positioned going forward,” says Irene Waage Basili, CEO of the company.
Oceanografia has more than forty years experience in offshore contracting and operates a substantial fleet of owned and chartered vessels in the Gulf of Mexico. “Polar Queen” will operate on a contract for the Mexican state oil company PEMEX. – This is the first contract in the Gulf of Mexico for GC Rieber Shipping, and gives us presence in a new and growing market for us, says Basili.
“Polar Queen” is 110.6 meters long and has a a beam of 20 meters. She is equipped with a 150 ton offshore AHC crane, has accommodation capacity of 112 people and a deck area of 1000 square meters. The vessel is designed by Skipsteknisk and meets the latest environmental standards through the class designation “Clean Design”.
With the delivery of the “Polar Queen”, only one vessel remains in the company’s ongoing newbuilding program, the seismic vessel yn 533. The seismic operator Dolphin Geophysical has an option to charter this vessel. “Implementation of our new building program and a diversified client portfolio puts us in a strong position to meet what we believe will become active and exciting years for the offshore industry,” says Basili .
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Source: GC Rieber Shipping, October 20, 2011.