Strong demand ‘forces’ Mermaid to charter 3 vessels

Mermaid Maritime, a provider of subsea and drilling services for the global offshore oil and gas industry, has chartered in three vessels in the past month to take on new projects, on the back of strong demand for its services.

Mermaid Maritime has recently chartered the ‘Siem Daya 2’, an offshore subsea construction vessel to provide subsea cable laying installation support services in the Middle East for an upstream national oil and gas major.

The ‘Siem Daya 2’ will be on hire until early January 2015 with options for further extension depending on additional work availability.

In October 2014, the Group also chartered-in the ‘Mubarak Carrier’, a construction barge for short term work on subsea cable lay trenching support in the Middle East for an upstream national oil and gas major as well as the ‘Harkand Harmony’, a remotely-operated vehicle (“ROV”) and survey support vessel for gas detection work in the Gulf of Thailand for an international upstream oil and gas major. Both charters will cater to additional short-term customer requirements scheduled to be completed this November 2014.

These chartered vessels join the Group’s fleet of seven subsea vessels that include the ‘Mermaid Asiana’, and ‘Mermaid Siam’ located in the Middle East; the ‘Mermaid Commander’, ‘Mermaid Sapphire’, ‘Mermaid Challenger’ and ‘Barakuda’ located in South East Asia; and the ‘Mermaid Endurer’ located in the North Sea.

Other vessels also on charter by Mermaid are the ‘Bourbon Evolution’ and ‘Mubarak Supporter’ in the Middle East; and the ‘Endeavour’ and ‘Resolution’ in South East Asia.

Chalermchai Mahagitsiri, Chief Executive Officer of Mermaid said, “With many of our key assets serving existing contracts, the Group has had to charter additional vessels to fulfill strong demand for our scope of services, bringing our operational fleet up to 14. The brisk business done by our subsea services segment is testimony that our shallow water biased fleet remains in strong demand globally.

“These recent additions also enhance Mermaid’s reputation by leading the way in the deployment of a technologically advanced and modern fleet. With an overall order book of USD 470 million and the potential for more near-term contract wins, we are optimistic that our plans for product and geographical expansion remain on track.”