Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) has decided to terminate, by agreement with Island Navigator I KS, its shipbuilding contract for the top hole drilling/light well intervention vessel, Island Navigator.
Reportedly, the yard stated that is has been facing difficulties in its engineering process as well as with increases of material costs since the contract was signed.
Combined with a common understanding that the environment surrounding the offshore development industry is, and will be, severe and unpredictable in the period of the vessel’s remaining construction, and the ongoing financial restructuring of the Island Offshore Group, KHI and Island Offshore reached a mutual agreement to terminate the shipbuilding contract for the vessel, Island Offshore said in a press release.
“The Island Navigator would have been a fantastic vessel. Going forward we choose to develop our existing light well intervention vessels which still is the leading and most modern vessels within its niche,” says Håvard Ulstein , managing director of Island Offshore Management AS.
The termination will not have any negative economical consequence for Island Offshore. Provided that the banks which finance the project consent, the termination will be implemented in January 2018.