AsiaOffshore

Tasik Subsea star is born with new vessel launch

Task Subsea, a new subsea services company set up by former Hallin Marine boss John Giddens and M3 Marine’s Mike Meade, officially kicked off yesterday with the launch of diving support vessel Southern Star.

The vessel, built at China’s Fujian Mawei Shipyard, will commence operations in Southeast Asia in January on a five year bareboat charter.

During the launch ceremony, Giddens commented: “At the outset we decided to build a technically advanced, cost effective vessel whilst working closely with the charterer from the start.

“Those decisions have been vindicated by the economic challenges that face our industry today as a result of low oil prices and the general slowdown in the marine industry.”

Speaking to Splash today about the new venture Meade said that the vessel was built with economy in mind and from the design stage was specified as fit for purpose.

On whether more new vessels are on the way for Tasik Subsea, he said: “Tasik will order further units when the market conditions are right, which is not now.”

However new orders may not be too far off. Meade said that the pure play diving support vessel sector numbers only around 80 vessels globally, with over 50% of the fleet being over 30 years old.

“With each vessel being bespoke the market can absorb new tonnage. Further, the order book for this class on paper numbers nearly 20 units however during this crisis we have only seen half that number being made effective,” Meade explained.

Grant Rowles

Grant spent nine years at Informa Group based in London, Sydney, Hong Kong and Singapore. He gained strong management experience in publishing, conferences and awards schemes in the shipping and legal areas, working on a number of titles including Lloyd's List. In 2009 Grant joined Seatrade responsible for the commercial development of Seatrade’s Asia products. In 2012, with Sam Chambers, he co-founded Asia Shipping Media.
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