The Netherlands: Fairstar Wins Multi-voyage Transportation Contract

Fairstar Heavy Transport N.V. (FAIR) has been awarded a multi-voyage transportation contract for USD 28 million to provide the marine transportation of 111 modules and seventy containers from the Agrium Fertilizer Plant in Kenai, Alaska to a greenfield site in Ossiomo, Nigeria. Both of Fairstar’s open stern, semi-submersible vessels, FJORD and FJELL will be utilized in the course of the project, scheduled to begin in August of 2011.

In addition, Fairstar has been appointed as the Transportation Interface Manager for the project and will be responsible for organizing and coordinating the land transportation of the modules from the current site in Kenai, Alaska to the quayside staging area where they will be loaded onto the FJORD and FJELL. Once FJORD and FJELL arrive in the port of Koko, Nigeria, Fairstar will manage the discharge and transport of the modules by land to the final site in Ossiomo, Nigeria where they will be re-assembled and subsequently re-commissioned.

Chris Muilwijk, from Fairstar’s Client Services Group, highlights the ground-breaking nature of the operation, “Fairstar has successfully arranged the first “door-to-door” contract ever awarded to a marine heavy transport company. The complexity of this assignment gives Fairstar a unique opportunity to showcase not only the special features of FJORD and FJELL as two of the most versatile open stern semi-submersible vessels in the global fleet today, but also shows the value of the Fairstar Team as project managers.”

Philip Adkins, Fairstar’s CEO added, “High value, multi-voyage transportation projects are the foundation of the Fairstar ‘Red Box Strategy’. This contract recognizes Fairstar’s growing stature as a leading provider of complex logistics solutions. We are currently reviewing proposals from various land transportation sub-contractors and expect to choose our partners in Alaska and Nigeria in the next few weeks. The USD 28 million in the Fairstar contract is for the marine transportation component only. The cost of land transport will be established once the tender process has completed and the winning sub-contractors have been selected. FJORD and FJELL will mobilize to Alaska once they have completed their contracts transporting 42 tug boats from Singapore to Maracaibo, Venezuela. We now estimate the utilization of both vessels to be close to 100% for the rest of 2011.”

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Source: FairstarHT, May 24, 2011.