Supreme Court rejects Prosafe appeal in Westcon case

An attempt made by offshore accommodation rig provider Prosafe to appeal a court’s decision in its case against Westcon, related to the conversion of the Safe Scandinavia unit, has been rejected by the Supreme Court.

The dispute between Westcon Yards and Prosafe was related to a substantial cost overrun of Westcon’s price estimate for the conversion of Prosafe’s Safe Scandinavia to a tender support vessel (TSV) under a contract signed in 2015.

The conversion project had experienced delays thereby also delaying the beginning of the contract with the Norwegian oil company Equinor, then Statoil.

Prosafe also claimed that the conversion of the vessel had experienced substantial cost overruns compared to the price estimate given by Westcon when the two entered into the contract.

Following one judgement in Prosafe’s favour, an appeal by Westcon, and a counter appeal by Prosafe in 2018, the Gulating Court of Appeal on 15 April 2021 reversed a decision of a district court in Norway, ordering Prosafe to pay a total of about $55 million to Westcon.

Prosafe at first mulled whether to take things further to the Supreme Court since a judgement from a Court of Appeal is usually final with limited possibilities for further appeal. However, the company in May 2021 decided to head to the Supreme Court anyhow to “address the shortcomings of the judgement by the Gulating Court of Appeal through an appeal to the Supreme Court”.

In an update on Friday, Prosafe said that the Supreme Court has now decided not to accept the appeal. As such, the judgement by the Gulating Court of Appeal is final.

The Gulating Court of Appeal decided that Prosafe had to pay Westcon NOK 302,510,457 plus interest and legal costs, in total about NOK 465 million (about $52.8 million) related to the conversion of the Safe Scandinavia at Westcon yard.

The 1984-built Safe Scandinavia is an anchor moored semi-submersible tender support and accommodation vessel with beds for 309 persons capable of operating worldwide in harsh conditions.