Norwegian owner Golden Energy Offshore Services (GEOS) has signed a contract with a leading international energy company for a long-term time charter of one of its two 2019-built large platform supply vessels.
The vessel Energy Empress or Energy Duchess has been earmarked for an offshore drilling campaign in the Caribbean. The one-year firm contract will most likely commence at the end of September 2022 as one of the two vessels comes off its present contractual commitments. GOES said the firm deal has a minimum payment of about $7.9m, adding that the charterer also has an option to extend the contract for up to one year, which will provide an income of an additional $8m.
The Ålesund-based company recently secured a refinancing agreement worth $45m with global asset manager Oaktree Capital Management, allowing it to close the acquisition of the PSV duo and has a further uncommitted accordion facility of $35m from Oaktree to finance new ship acquisitions.
“We are very optimistic,” said Per Ivar Fagervoll, CEO of GEOS. “The offshore market has picked up sharply, and we are in a period of high utilization, which analysis shows will continue. With four ships, including two state-of-the-art new builds, in full operation and Oaktree as a new, long-term financial partner, we are well rigged to take part in the growth ahead,” he added.
GEOS has enjoyed a good second quarter, with high utilisation and increasing rates, and so far it has achieved 100% utilisation of the fleet in the third quarter.
