Woodside contracts Solstad PSV for Australian ops

Norwegian offshore vessel owner Solstad Offshore has been awarded a long-term contract for one of its platform supply vessels (PSVs) by Woodside to support its operations offshore Australia.

Solstad Offshore announced the new contract with Woodside on Thursday, explaining it was for the provision of the PSV Normand Tortuga. The firm confirmed the vessel was contracted for a firm period of 572 days with additional options available to Woodside thereafter.

This contract, which is expected to start in late 1Q/early 2Q 2022, stipulates that the PSV will support activities with the Valaris-owned DPS-1 semi-submersible on the Enfield P&A and Scarborough projects.

To remind, Woodside made the final investment decisions (FID) to approve the Scarborough offshore gas project last month, while BHP approved $1.5 billion in capital expenditure for the development of the project.

Solstad explained that during the period of the contract, the 2014-built Normand Tortuga would be operating from Dampier, Western Australia. Currently, the vessel operates in New Zealand as its charterers in July this year declared options to extend their contract until the end of 2021. Last year, this PSV supported OMV’s drilling campaign at the Maui A Platform.

The last month of the year is proving to be very lucrative for Solstad as the company reported several new contract awards. First, the firm secured long-term contracts for two of its PSVs with Equinor for operations in Brazil. A couple of days later, it added two more contract awards for two other vessels to support Santos’ drilling operations offshore Australia.

The latest contract award was reported two days ago after Solstad won a contract for another one of its PSVs, enabling the vessel to continue supporting operations in the North Sea.