Dockwise Vanguard Booked to Transport Statoil's Aasta Hansteen Spar

How might you get a 45,000 ton, 193-meter long steel tube from one side of the planet to the other? The world’s largest transport ship of course, however neither has been built yet.

Dockwise Vanguard heavy lift — Dockwise Vanguard, rendering courtesy Dockwise

Statoil has just awarded Dockwise a $57 million contract to tackle this project with the Dockwise Vanguard, a new super transport ship that will carry the Aasta Hansteen spar offshore Norway from a shipyard either in Korea or Finland in 2015.

The Vanguard will be an extremely capable vessel with a cargo deck 275 meters long capable of lifting 100,000 tons. This is the third contract booked so far for this vessel in recent months. Last October, Dockwise announced they had won a contract to deliver the Goliat FPSO from Korea to Norway on board this vessel.

Additional Dockwise contracts for other clients comprise the transport of four drilling rigs to Rotterdam, Saudi Arabia and Singapore (all for H1 2012) and a single load of barges to Brazil in Q2 2012.

AndrÃ© GoedÃ©e, Chief Executive Officer of Dockwise, commented: “These contract wins, particularly a double rig cargo on the Black Marlin from Singapore to Rotterdam, are further proof of the rise in activity levels in oil & gas exploration seen since the end of 2011.

dockwise black marlin — Dockwise’s Black Marlin, image courtesy Dockwise

The contract win for Dockwise Vanguard underlines our clients’ recognition by of the advantages of a vessel of the scale and capacity of Dockwise Vanguard. Spar buoys were an asset class that we identified as potential for this vessel and consequently I am excited that the Aasta Hansteen spar buoy contract is the first to materialize of those prospects we are discussing with clients for the post 2013 period.

We are actively pursuing several short term business opportunities and as before actively tendering for T&I projects in various important regions. As a result we are confident of further increases in backlog in due course.”