The Netherlands: Fairstar Issues Fleet Update for 2012 Q1

Fairstar Heavy Transport N.V. (FAIR) has contracted revenues totalling USD 190 million for its fleet of four vessels, FJORD/FJELL/FORTE/FINESSE. These contracts are for the Gorgon (3 vessels) CLOV (1 vessel) Northern Offshore (1 vessel) Hercules (1 vessel) and recently announced Golden Eagle (2 vessels) projects.

Philip Adkins, CEO of Fairstar, highlighted the strategic importance of these contracts, stating – “Fairstar has taken a fundamentally different approach to the marine heavy transport industry in the past five years. We have invested heavily in a new fleet of purpose built, open stern semi-submersible heavy transport vessels. We have also listened carefully to our strategic clients, namely the E&P companies investing billions of dollars in new oil and gas projects and the EPC companies responsible for designing and constructing the infrastructure necessary to extract and package this energy for supply to the markets where it is in demand. The complexity of these projects is increasing and the technical support required by our clients involves a broad scope of skills including engineering, project management, environmental stewardship and most importantly safety. We have invested in a Team of dedicated professionals at Fairstar who can deliver this service package to our clients.

Our commitment to exceptional service has been validated by the contract awards we have received in the last 18 months. In particular, FINESSE now has its first voyage in place for Golden Eagle in 2013. FJORD has just arrived in Angola to load the CLOV FPSO components for DSME. After discharge in Okpo, South Korea, FJORD will be on contract for Gorgon. FORTE will soon follow in July. Fairstar stakeholders will benefit from a stream of monthly payments and achieve a consistent earnings profile that has never been a feature of our industry in the past. FJELL is sailing with the Northern Offshore rig ENERGY EXERTER en route to Rotterdam. After Rotterdam, FJELL will re-unite with the Hercules 185 and take her back to West Africa in March.

Fairstar has built strong relationships with all of our clients and the repeat business we have earned from Northern Offshore, ENSCO, Chevron, Hercules, KBR and Saipem underscores their confidence in Fairstar and the competence of our dedicated Team. The short term prospects of additional contract awards are high. The Tender Process for high value, multi-voyage projects can take as long as 18 months. Fairstar has submitted qualified tenders that are awaiting contract award, in over ten on-shore and off-shore projects. We believe the combination of our modern fleet and highly skilled Team will continue to give us a compelling competitive edge. We intend to maintain this competitive edge to win additional high value, multi-voyage contracts and deliver a predictable earnings stream to our stakeholders.“

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World Maritime News Staff, January 30, 2012; Image: Fairstar