Polarcus, an Oslo-listed marine seismic acquisition company, has delivered its Polarcus Amani seismic vessel to Russia’s Sovcomflot, as per an agreement announced in February.
Polarcus has signed the charter deal for the vessel with Sovcomflot, and the vessel was delivered to Sovcomflot on Friday in Bergen.
The vessel was delivered without streamers, providing the Polarcus fleet with one excess streamer package, which will significantly reduce capital expenditure requirements through 2017 and 2018, Polarcus said.
Following delivery of the vessel to Sovcomflot, the Polarcus Group has two vessels on long-term bareboat charter and operates a fleet of four vessels in the contract market.
Duncan Eley , Polarcus CEO said: “We are very pleased that Sovcomflot has taken a second Polarcus vessel on bareboat charter, reinforcing our collaboration with a strategic client. We see this as a strong endorsement of our vessels’ capabilities and suitability for state of the art seismic data acquisition. Importantly, this agreement delivers significant positive cash flow throughout the charter period. Our two vessels on long-term bareboat charter provide a total fixed backlog in excess of $100 million with no associated operating costs.”
As per the agreement in February, the charter will generate minimum hire of $72 million over the fixed charter period with the possibility of increased charter hire fees based on Sovcomflot benefiting from certain market improvements.
Sovcomflot will have the right to purchase the vessel at any time during the charter at pre-agreed prices.
As said by the Polarcus CEO, this is the second Polarcus’ vessel chartered by Sovcomflot, the first being Vyacheslav Tikhonov.
The two companies in February 2016 signed a three-year charter extension for Vyacheslav Tikhonov, formerly Polarcus Selma.
The original five-year agreement between the two companies for the Vyacheslav Tikhonov, was inked in August 2011.
Vyacheslav Tikhonov is a 3D seismic 8-streamer vessel. It was built in 2011 by Drydocks World Dubai LLC to the Ulstein SX133 design, and incorporating the Ulstein X-BOW hull. The vessel is 84.2m long with a beam of 17.0m.
During a naming ceremony for the seismic vessel Vyacheslav Tikhonov in September 2011, in the Russian Black Sea city of Sochi, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin assumed the role of Guardian to the vessel. He acted as the prime minister at the time.
Offshore Energy Today Staff