Equinox Loses Vessels and Petrobras Contract

Singapore’s Sembawang Shipyard has acquired all the membership interests in Equinox Offshore Brazil Cooperative U.A and shares in Equinox Offshore ARV3 BV as EO ARV3 was unable to fulfill its payment obligations for the conversion of the accommodation and repair vessel ARV3 by Sembawang Shipyard.

The ARV3 is a diesel electric DP2 high-specification vessel that is designed and equipped to provide extensive accommodation and workshop facilities to support and service offshore facilities and projects in deep water areas. The vessel has accommodation and workshop facilities to comfortably house a complement of 450 persons. EO ARV3, which owns ARV3, has a five-year charter contract with Petrobras to lease and operate the vessel in Brazil.

Equinox Offshore Accommodation Limited, a Company incorporated as a Public Company in Singapore in 2007, will cease to have any control over the ARV3 project and the associated Petrobras contract.

To remind, Brazil’s state run oil company Petrobras, in November 2011, awarded a Letter of Intent to Equinox for the provision of an accommodation and repair vessel (ARV). Following the LOI, in December 2011, Equinox contracted Sembawang Shipyard, a subsidiary of Sembcorp Marine, to convert a ropax vessel to a DP2 Accommodation and Repair Vessel (ARV). The estimated value of the contract was US$140 million.

Also, Equinox last week announced that certain bondholders of the Company have  arrested the ARV1 vessel in Gibraltar and sold the unit in a judicial sale process in accordance with the admiralty court of Gibraltar. “As such, the Company has no control or will receive no benefit from the sale of the ARV1 vessel,” the company said.