The A. P. Moller - Maersk Group may be world leaders in container shipping but the company has diversified operations giving it a broader based portfolio than any of its smaller rivals. One of the areas it is currently giving a lot of attention to is support services for the marine oil and gas industries and this week its specialist arm Maersk Supply Service announced the signing of four new contracts worth in the region of $250 million.
As with all energy associated croups Brazil and Australia are both important regions for Maersk Supply Service and the two Danish anchor handling tug supply vessels Maersk Blazer and Maersk Boulder have each won four year extensions of current contracts with Maersk Supply Services biggest customer, Petrobras of Brazil, from February 2012. The vessels have been working for Petrobras since 2007 and 1999 respectively and mainly perform deep water operations with conventional and torpedo anchors.
Two contracts have also been concluded with American oil major ExxonMobil, for a minimum of two years each for the Danish flagged platform supply vessels Maersk Nomad and Maersk Nexus. The Nomad contract includes significant modifications including fitting a 125-tonne crane on the vessel to enable her to support subsea operations in the Jansz field on the North West shelf. Nexus is already in Australia on contract and Nomad will be delivered to Exxon in April 2012. |
