Offshore vessel owner Solstad Offshore has won a charter for its Normand Reach offshore vessel. The vessel, usually working in the oil and gas sector, will move to the U.S. later this year to support a subsea mining project.
The vessel has been on a long-term charter with Reach Subsea, and has recently completed its contract with BP in the UK North Sea on the Mungo field , a large oilfield with a small gas cap which separates liquids from gas. The original charter with Reach was to expire in 2019.
In a statement on Friday, Reach Subsea said it would continue to trade the vessel in the spot market until Solstad’s contract starts. Solstad’s contract is for four to six months and will begin in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Reach has also said that Solstad’s contract doesn’t include the use of ROVs, so Reach Subsea has been released from its 100-day commitment towards Solstad for 2019 and will de-mobilize the two ROVs onboard.
The new contract for Solstad’s CSV has been awarded by Global Sea Mineral Resources (GSR), part of DEME Group. According to Solstad’s announcement on Friday, the vessel will be mobilized from Europe with the mining vehicle Patania II aboard before sailing to the United States.
Patania II is a pre-prototype remotely operated mining vehicle designed to collect polymetallic nodules in water depths down to 5000 meters below the surface.
The Normand Reach will work side-by-side with the German research vessel Sonne under the JPI Oceans project Mining Impact II to perform an independent scientific assessment of the environmental impacts generated during the Patania II tests in the Belgian and German license areas in the Pacific Ocean.
Offshore Energy Today Staff