Denmark: VIKING Takes 360 Degrees Safety Servicing Offshore

New, transparent multi-year service agreement concept from VIKING revolutionizes the way offshore owners and operators solve the difficulties of managing multiple brands, equipment types and regulatory approvals for safety equipment and servicing.

Handling safety equipment servicing has always been a time-consuming and hard-to-budget headache for offshore vessel and infrastructure owners and operators. In fact, the range of products and servicing agreements can be a minefield of hidden costs and complexities even for the most experienced of safety managers.

 One, all-encompassing agreement

Leading marine and fire safety equipment manufacturer VIKING Life-saving Equipment has stepped in to simplify this challenging and costly situation with the VIKING Offshore Service Agreement – an adaptation of the company’s highly successful VIKING Shipowner Agreements.

Released in 2009, the original Shipowner Agreements were an industry game-changer, giving peace of mind to frustrated shipowners trying to deal with servicing for multiple equipment types and brands for vessels spread around the globe. Now that same level of support has arrived for the offshore industry, too.

The new agreements are modeled on VIKING’s Shipowner Agreements and have been carefully tailored to address the special needs of customers with offshore infrastructure. Equipment leasing and service packages are offered – with full POB capacity in mind – for Offshore support vessels, semi-submersibles, jack-ups, drillships and floating production and offloading vessels.

A wide range of safety equipment servicing, including evacuation systems, liferafts, fire-fighting equipment, breathing apparatus, deluge systems and immersion suits are covered under the new agreements. Liferafts, for example, can become part of VIKING´s large global liferaft exchange pool. Specially trained technical service teams install newly serviced liferafts and bring back liferafts due for service in a single transaction enabling offshore operators to retain full evacuation capacity and enjoy uninterrupted operations.

VIKING vice president Benny Carlsen says: “Offshore vessel and infrastructure owners or operators need reliable, smooth operations unaffected by safety equipment servicing requirements. A lot of the safety equipment requires a combination of onshore and offshore servicing. An agreement that incorporates safety products, global servicing and financing in fixed price structures gives full transparency and predictability. And everything is planned and monitored from a single point of contact.”

 Cost savings and predictability

By offering fixed price options and equipment exchange combined with efficient service planning, VIKING is now able to ensure that servicing of safety equipment is a far simpler task for offshore owners and operators – enabling them to stay at their optimal POB capacity.

“The move represents yet another step in our strategy of being closer to our customers,” says Benny Carlsen. “And we’re continually developing our service concept to match their needs.”

VIKING’s estimates indicate that with only one transaction involved, offshore operators can also cut the need for transportation in half, saving costs and making planning and logistics much more efficient.

“We expect these new agreements to be just as popular as our Shipowner Agreements, which are chosen by more shipowners globally than any similar servicing concept,” says Benny Carlsen.

[mappress]

Viking, August 19, 2013