Norway’s Olympic Shipping is to lay up two anchor handling tug supply (AHTS) vessels and a platform support vessel.
A source in Olympic’s chartering department told Splash the specific vessels to be laid up have not yet been decided, nor has the date that they will be idled.
“It’s difficult to say but we expect that it will be within one month,” Splash heard.
The poor state of the offshore shipping market in the North Sea has prompted the lay-ups, which will result in up to 60 of Olympic’s 800 employees being made redundant. The lay-offs will mainly affect temporary staff and contractors, according to Norwegian press reports. Olympic’s management said it was in discussions with employee representatives.
Some 18 AHTSs are currently laid up in the North Sea, plus 50 platform supply vessels (PSV) and four multipurpose supply vessels, according to data from shipbroker Westshore.