Norwegian shipping firm GC Rieber has come to an agreement with administrators for defunct subsea contractor Ceona regarding its vessel Polar Onyx.
GC Rieber Shipping terminated the contract for the subsea construction support vessel, which was chartered to Ceona, in September, after the London-headquartered company defaulted on a payment.
Ceona went into administration soon after with the loss of 102 jobs.
As part of a full and final settlement with the administrators of Ceona, GC Rieber Shipping will take ownership of the VLS pipelay tower and associated parts installed on the vessel. In addition, it will be paid around $16.3million from the established cash deposit, which was part of the charter agreement.
Polar Onyx began a five-year charter to Ceona in March 2014 and carried out deep-water operations with Petronas in Brazil.
GC Rieber has also confirmed that it has entered into a 60-day charter agreement with Marine Platforms for the Polar Onyx.
The vessel will conduct flex-laying activities for Chevron offshore Nigeria. The charter will begin in January 2016.
GC Rieber has also reported profits down by nearly half in its quarter three results, compared with the same period last year.
The group had an operating revenue of NOK336.6million, compared to NOK 240.7 million in the third quarter 2014.
The group had a net profit of NOK25.3million in the third quarter of 2015, versus a net profit of NOK47million in the third quarter 2014 with the Polar Onyx written down by NOK 119 million in the quarterly accounts.
Total fleet utilization was 87%, compared to 99% in the same period last year.
Chief executive Irene Waage Basili, said: “The underlying operations in the company have been positive in the third quarter of 2015, however the current market situation in the subsea and seismic segments is challenging and hampered by uncertainty throughout the whole value chain.”
GC Rieber Shipping terminated the contract with Ceona Chartering (UK) Limited (Ceona) for “Polar Onyx” in September due to charterers default. In November,
In October, GC Rieber Shipping entered into an agreement with Dolphin Geophysical regarding early redelivery of Polar Duke, representing approximately $16 million in reduced hire payments. The agreement includes extension of firm periods for the Polar Marquis” and Polar Duchess charters by 18 months.
At the end of the third quarter, GC Rieber had a contract backlog of NOK2.7billion, with average contract duration of 2.1 years.