Island Offshore, a Norwegian provider of offshore vessels for the oil and gas industry, has decided to lay up two platform supply vessels with immediate effect.
The two vessels set for layup are the Island Dragon and Island Duchess, built in 2014 and 2013, respectively.
The Island Dragon has been on contract with Lundin Norway since it was delivered in June 2014, and will now be replaced by Island Commander.
The reason for making this change is a request made by the oil company, wanting a vessel with larger deck capacity, Island Offshore explained. The 2009-built Island Commander has now been prepared for standby duty.
“The situation in the spot market is still fragile and we cannot justify letting Island Dragon operate in this market. This means that we will have to lay her up indefinitely. As Lundin is an important customer to us, we want to be flexible to adapt to their change of needs. It is an implicit strength to be able to meet their requests,” says Managing Director of Island Offshore Management AS, Håvard Ulstein .
The Island Duchess has been in Las Palmas for some time, being available for jobs off the coast of Africa, but the low activity has made Island Offshore decide to stop offering Island Duchess and lay her up. The vessel is now in Ulsteinvik.
“We have started discussions with employee representatives regarding work force reductions,” the Norwegian shipping company said.
With this, Island Offshore has four PSVs in layup, as well as three LWI vessels and one ROV/construction vessel in winter layup. Two of the LWI vessels have started to mobilize for this year’s campaign for Statoil with start up on April 1, 2016.