Forland finds work for Inspector vessel just as Fugro gig slips away

Forland Subsea has entered into a time charter party for the Forland Inspector vessel, formerly known as Lewek Inspector, right after it lost a contract for its only other vessel, the Fugro Saltire.

Namely, Forland on Wednesday informed that Fugro had terminated its time charter for the 2008-built Fugro Saltire multi-purpose offshore vessel.

As reported by Offshore Energy Today earlier on Thursday, Fugro has been taking measures to restore its profitability through, among other things, early termination of vessel charter agreements.

Announcing the new deal for the Forland Inspector, which was renamed and re-flagged from Malta to Cyprus in late July, Forland said on Thursday that the contract is with a “first-class client” and that the vessel will be used for subsea operations, including ROV support and crane work.

The charter has started and it is for nine months firm plus three months options. The commercial terms of the agreement are kept confidential between the parties.

The Havyard 857 multi-purpose offshore DP2 vessel was built in 2013.

The vessel was previously under charter with Ezra’s subsidiary Emas AMC. After Emas missed the payment for the vessel in late 2016, Forland in February served Ezra, as a guarantor, a statutory demand seeking payment of approximately NOK 25.5 million owed to it by Emas.

Meanwhile, the vessel was hired for a three-week gig in February. In connection with this, Forland and Emas entered into a stand-still agreement for the duration of the short- term charter, which allowed Forland to charter the Lewek Inspector without terminating the charter party with Emas AMC.

Come March and the charter guarantor, Singapore’s Ezra, filed voluntary petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.

Offshore Energy Today Staff