Prosafe: With new vessel tenders on the horizon, tightening of supply on the cards

Oslo Stock Exchange-listed semi-submersible accommodation vessel owner and operator Prosafe is in high hopes over the upcoming tendering activity for 2025 and beyond, as the market tightens.

Prosafe’s fleet utilization for November 2023 was 49.5%. The company’s Safe Notos and Safe Zephyrus vessels had a utilization of 100% during the previous month while Safe Concordia’s utilization was 95.8%.

Moreover, Safe Eurus had utilization of 46.7% in November, but the vessel was off-hire from mid-November for Petrobras compliance works, hull cleaning, and a special periodic survey (SPS). This vessel has recently resumed operations.

On the other hand, three vessels were laid up, including Safe Caledonia, which is at Scapa Flow in the UK, along with Safe Boreas and Safe Scandinavia, which are laid up in Norway pending future work.

Meanwhile, Prosafe explained that a tender was recently submitted for 2025 operations on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) for a high-specification accommodation unit. This tender has an expected duration of six months with the potential for further options and the outcome of the tender is expected in 1Q 2024.
 
Furthermore, the vessel owner is seeing a rise in inquiries from potential clients, thus it is feeling “optimistic” about additional tenders and/or direct awards in the North Sea during 1Q and 2Q 2024 with a focus on 2025 onwards. The company also anticipates further tenders in Brazil from Petrobras and other operators with contract start dates from the end of 2024 onwards.

Prosafe is also witnessing increased activity in other regions for 2025 and beyond, including Australia and West Africa, thus, the firm is under the impression that this should lead to a further tightening of supply.