OSM Offshore takes over technical management of Forland’s fleet

Norwegian company Forland Shipping AS will outsource the technical management of its offshore vessels.

The Norwegian offshore vessel owner has hired OSM Offshore, also from Norway, for the job.

Under the agreement, OSM Offshore will be responsible for the technical management for Forland’s offshore construction vessels “Fugro Saltire” and “Lewek Inspector”.

The technical management of the vessels will in practice be taken over by OSM during the next couple of months, Forland said in a statement on Friday.

Geir Sekkesæter,  OSM’s CEO said: “We are very proud that Forland has chosen to extend our cooperation to full technical management. It is a strong indication that our organization is doing a good job when our customers look for further opportunities whereby we can help them; in this instance, helping to reduce operational costs, increase purchasing power, and access to OSM’s worldwide network. I believe that many of the smaller ship owning companies in the offshore sector are looking for ways to reinvent themselves. To do so requires being able to focus on strategy and business development rather than operations, and partnering with OSM can help to achieve just that.”

Says Forland Shipping’s managing director, Bjørn Kristian Jæger: “Being a small shipping company operating in a very challenging market, we have to minimalize our operational cost, at the same time as we sustain the traditionally high performance of our vessels. After years with OSM responsible for crew management of our vessels, we are convinced that the present outsourcing of technical management will be the right answer to this situation. Furthermore, this decision also enables us to focus more on strategy, business development and marketing, which we believe will be mandatory for any company’s success in future. Among others, OSM will also be one of our important resource partners in this sector.”

Forland’s fleet consists of the two vessels mentioned above, however the company recently hinted that in the long run, the company intends to grow its vessel fleet by three or five vessels.

The timing of the expansion will depend on when the current market conditions would improve.

The company’s short and medium term goal is to secure extensions of the existing time charter contracts for their two vessels or to obtain new contracts when the existing ones expire in 2018.

Forland recently reached a temporary agreement with EMAS-AMC after EMAS defaulted on the charter hire payment for Forland’s Lewek Inspector vessel for October and November 2016.

Under the agreement, the Lewek Inspector will complete its ongoing project offshore Congo, currently expected to be completed in January 2017.

As for the Forland’s other vessel, the Fugro Saltire, Fugro has found a niche segment for the vessel – to carry out trenching operations within renewables in the UK.

Offshore Energy Today Staff