By providing a loan in the amount of approximatelly $49.7 million, KfW IPEX-Bank is financing ‘Walk to Work’ vessel which will be used by Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM), a joint venture of Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil.
Santander acted as a structuring bank and equity underwriter of this transaction.
The ship is being built at the Royal Niestern Sander Shipyard in Delfzijl, Netherlands, with completion scheduled for early 2015, and will be operated by Wagenborg Offshore, which has been advised by Clarkson Financial Services.
The Walk to Work vessel will reduce helicopter flights to offshore oil and gas platforms by transporting up to 40 workers needed on the platforms for maintenance work. The use of the vessel will thus reduce both costs and harmful emissions.
On a total length of 79 meters, it can accommodate two maintenance teams of 20 workers each, a crew of 20 as well as tools and chemicals.
Equipped with state-of-the-art technological components, the vessel offers working conditions that meet the highest occupational safety standards, including a Kongsberg Green DP system – a dynamic positioning computer system that controls the propellers and bow thrusters to keep the vessel in position.
A motion-compensated crane and the corresponding motion-compensated gangway provide for even higher safety standards, allowing both the crew and heavy equipment to safely reach the offshore platform, even in wave heights of up to 2.5 meters.
The vessel is specifically designed for use in the NAM ONEgas assets in the Southern North Sea. ONEgas is a combined business unit of Shell UK Exploration & Production (Shell) and the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij B.V. (NAM).
[mappress] June 3, 2014