Deepwater Well Intervention Services News

FTO Services announced today that construction of its new deepwater well intervention services vessel has been completed. The naming ceremony for the new vessel, Island Performer, was held in Ulsteinvik, Norway on June 27. During the event, about 200 guests including executives from FTO Services, Edison Chouest Offshore and FMC Technologies sailed on a five hour maiden voyage to celebrate the naming of the vessel. In the fourth quarter of 2014, FTO Services will begin a 5 year lease of Island Performer from vessel owner, Island Offshore.

Helix Energy Solutions Group announce a number of contractual commitments for its well intervention fleet of vessels. The Helix 534 was acquired in August from Transocean and is undergoing modifications and upgrades necessary for conversion into a well intervention vessel at the Jurong Shipyard in Singapore. It is scheduled to sail from Singapore during the first quarter of 2013 and after transit to the Gulf of Mexico, is expected to be placed into service in late second quarter 2013. Backlog for the Helix 534 involves work in the Gulf of Mexico and extends into 2016.

Aker Solutions' operating revenues were NOK 11 158 million in the third quarter of 2012. Year-to-date revenues are 32 percent higher than in the first nine months of 2011. Quarterly earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) amounted to NOK 1,122 million with a margin of 10.1 percent. "The quarter can be summarized in three headlines: continued stable operational performance, strong order intake and a number of breakthrough contracts," said Øyvind Eriksen, executive chairman of Aker Solutions. The order intake in the quarter was NOK 16.9 billion. Order backlog at the end of the quarter stood at NOK 59.7 billion, an increase of 44 percent from the beginning of the year.

Skandi Aker, Aker's purpose-built intervention vessel will be used for deep and ultra-deep well intervention services. The agreement is valid for a period of two years plus options for three further one-year periods. The firm two-year part of the contract has an aggregated value of approximately USD 250 million. Start-up of operations is planned to take place offshore Angola in Q1 2013. Skandi Aker is the first well service vessel of its kind capable of performing riser-based subsea well intervention in deep and ultra-deep waters. Traditionally subsea well intervention has been performed from drilling rigs. But the rigs' high day rates have made such operations very expensive, while rig availability has been limited.