Statoil hires Solstad Farstad platform supplier

Norwegian oil major Statoil has awarded new OSV player Solstad Farstad a five-year contract to support Statoil with one of its platform supply vessels on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

Solstad Farstad, a company created through the merger Solstad Offshore, Farstad Shipping, and Deep Sea Supply, began trading on the Oslo Stock Exchange last week.

The company said on Tuesday that the vessel in question is the 2008-built PSV Far Searcher. According to Solstad Farstad, the contract will begin in September 2017.

Apart from the initial five-year deal, Statoil has the option to extend the contract by additional five one-year extensions.

The parties agreed that the commercial terms of the agreement would remain confidential.

The company added that an Energy Storage System would be installed on the vessel as part of the contract. As a result, Far Searcher will be awarded the class notation “Battery Power” by DNV-GL.

Far Searcher will become the second vessel in the Solstad Farstad fleet on a long-term contract with Statoil that has the “Battery Power” notation. Offshore Energy Today reported earlier this month that the vessel Far Sun would be equipped with batteries for energy storage by Vard.

The Far Sun was delivered from Vard to Farstad Shipping in 2014 and has been under contract with Statoil since.