After months in lay-up, Eidesvik seismic ships get to work again

After months in lay-up mode, the time has come for two of Eidesvik’s vessels to hit the open water again.

The Norwegian shipowner has said that it has secured work for the seismic vessels Vantage and Veritas Viking. The vessels will be employed as source vessels and will work for the French seismic specialist CGG.

The contracts, 180 days firm each, will start in January 2017. CGG will have options to extend the contracts as well. Eidesvik did not disclose the financial details of the deal.

According to Eidesvik, the Vantage and the Veritas Viking have been in lay-up respectively since August 2014 and November 2015.

While CGG has now hired two Eidesvik vessels, the company in October terminated the contract for Eidesvik’s seismic vessel Viking Vision. The contract was due to expire at the end of July 2017.

Despite the termination, CGG agreed to continue the payment of the charter rate until July 2017. The vessel, of a Vik og Sandvik design, has been in lay-up since mid-July 2016.

Presenting its third quarter results earlier this month, CGG said the seismic market remained difficult as the moderate rise in oil prices did not spill over into the seismic industry.

The company’s CEO said: “While at the beginning of 2016 we targeted an improvement in certain of our activities for 2017, and as our customers are still in their budget planning process, our latest discussions suggest that our 2017 market should remain very similar to 2016. In light of this situation and based on our Q4 performance, we will take steps to evaluate our short- and long-term alternatives to address our capital structure constraints.”

However, not all is doom and gloom, as the company has secured two important contracts at the start of the fourth quarter. In mid-October CGG secured an extensive multi-client program by the Instituto Nacional de Petroleo (INP) to acquire seismic data offshore Mozambique.

A few days later, CGG scored a contract by Mexican oil company Pemex to deliver an orthogonal wide-azimuth survey to improve subsalt seismic imaging in the Perdido deepwater area offshore Mexico. 

Offshore Energy Today Staff