Prosafe unit gearing up for work in Gulf of Mexico

Offshore accommodation provider Prosafe has revealed a new timeline for the start of operations in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico for one of its semi-submersible vessels, which is currently getting ready for this assignment.

Following a letter of award from September 2022 to provide accommodation and construction support using the Safe Concordia unit in the Gulf of Mexico, Prosafe signed the contract with – what the firm deemed to be – a major operator in October 2022.

The firm duration of the contract was expected to start within a window of July through October and take 330 days with up to 6 months of options. The value of the firm part of the deal is approximately $33 million.

Come March 2023, the company provided an amended start window, which was July through September 2023 while a standby rate of $28,000 per day was agreed for the period from 1 August until the latest start date of 30 September.

In an update on Thursday, 22 June 2023, Prosafe confirmed that Safe Concordia was still in Curaçao where ramp-up and mobilisation works were underway for the upcoming contract in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. However, the timeline for the start of the contract has been narrowed to 1 August through 15 August 2023.

The company highlights that a standby rate of $28,000 per day has been arranged for the period from 1 August until the completion of mobilisation while the combined mobilisation costs and capex remain in the estimated range previously communicated of $25 to $30 million.

Safe Concordia is a DP2 semi-submersible ASV with 389 (461 with ALQ) beds for worldwide operations excluding Norway. The vessel was constructed at Keppel FELS shipyard in Singapore and delivered in March 2005. An upgrade was completed in July 2015.

The company further disclosed that Safe Notos, which started a new four-year contract with Petrobras on 18 July 2022 in direct continuation of the previous contract, was off-hire for 30 days due to Petrobras compliance works and hull cleaning. The vessel has been on hire again since 15 June 2023.

On the other hand, Safe Zephyrus started its 650-day contract with Petrobras in Brazil on 30 April 2023 and has been in continuous operation during the month. The signing of the deal for this vessel was revealed in December 2022. The contract is for a firm period of 650 days and is worth around $73 million, equivalent to $112,500 per day.

In addition, Safe Eurus continues to carry out operations with Petrobras, which requested to bring forward the compliance works, hull cleaning, and SPS from 1Q 2024 to November 2023, thus, the vessel will be off-hire for approximately 35 days in November/December 2023. The vessel was awarded this four-year contract with Petrobras in May 2022 with a planned start-up in 1Q 2023.

Meanwhile, the Safe Caledonia unit is laid up at Scapa Flow in the UK pending future work, after completing its contact with TotalEnergies at the Elgin platform in the UK on 2 December 2022. Two more vessels are currently laid up in Norway. These are Safe Boreas, which is laid up pending future work, and Safe Scandinavia, which is being marketed broadly, according to Prosafe.

The company is also actively looking to secure more work for its vessels. To this end, the firm explains that Petrobras has issued a new, four-year tender, thus, the company expects further tenders in Brazil from the Brazilian state-owned energy giant and other operators with contract start dates from early/mid 2024 to early 2025.

Additionally, Prosafe expects more tenders and/or direct awards in the North Sea for requirements from 2024 onwards.