Topaz Energy and Marine is buying two subsea vessels from Vard Brattvaag of Norway for about US$115 million, the oilfield services company in Dubai said yesterday.
The two vessels are due for delivery in the third and fourth quarters of 2017. Topaz has options for two more vessels.
“By building in what is a challenging time for the industry we have minimised costs, and believe that at the time of delivery the market will have rebalanced sufficiently to be generating healthy demand,” said René Kofod-Olsen, the chief executive of Topaz.
The company said the vessels would be able to reach working depths of 3,000 metres to explore and develop oil reservoirs.
Topaz, which operates a fleet of more than 95 offshore support vessels, is a unit of Renaissance Services, a publicly listed company in Oman.
Topaz focuses on the Caspian, Middle East and West Africa regions, with subsea operations as well in the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.
It reported a second-quarter loss of US$4.1 million because of investments in West Africa and one-off $8m charge associated with debt refinancing. It had reported a $12.7m profit for the second quarter of last year. Consolidated revenue dropped 6 per cent to $90.1m from $95.9m for the year-earlier period.
In April, Topaz secured a loan of $550m to help refinance its debt and invest in new projects.
dalsaadi@thenational.ae
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