Viking cancels contract due to sanctions against Russia

Swedish owner of offshore support vessels Viking Supply Ships (VSS) has cancelled a contract for aerial reconnaissance services with Blom ASA.

Blom is a Norway-headquartered service provider within area of acquisition, processing and modelling of geographic information. According to Blom’s press release issued on December 4, the cancellation of the contract for services in what it described as ‘Northern Waters’ is due to political sanctions against Russia.

Blom’s service was supposed to be connected to VSS’ operation in harsh water environment and it would have been part of a program for ice-monitoring.

Blom says that financial implications of the cancellation for 2015 are not yet concluded and will be discussed between the parties. The contract had an estimated annual revenue between NOK 35 million ($4.9M) – 50 million ($7M). The company says that new work is not expected until 2016 and 2017.

Offshore Energy Today has previously reported that VSS received an early termination notice for three of four AHTS vessels it chartered to a major oil company back in 2013 due to a 2015 drilling season being cancelled.

According to Norway’s Dagens Næringsliv (DN) the vessels were chartered by Karmorneftegaz SARL, a joint venture established between Russia’s oil giant Rosneft (66.67%) and U.S. oil major ExxonMobil (33.33%), for the drilling project in the Kara Sea.

VSS did not reply to an email sent by Offshore Energy Today seeking more info.

Offshore Energy Today also reported that Rosneft has cancelled contracts for three Siem Offshore’s vessels and two Rem Offshore’s vessels.

Offshore Energy Today Staff

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