![COLUMN | Slow news week: AHTS exodus, drilling contract awards, and new exploration activity off Greece, Gabon and Guinea-Bissau [Offshore Accounts]](http://media.assettype.com/bairdmaritime%2F2025-11-10%2Fm8uf9idq%2FUntitled.jpeg?w=480&auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=max)
Anyone who thinks they have it tough in their job might want to consider my position. Sure, there is no risk of me losing a finger in an unfortunate drill floor accident whilst running casing on a rig, even if I slam shut my laptop in frustration at the sight of Singapore-listed ASL Marine’s shares hitting a new multiyear high last week, quintupling over the past year, despite the double digit fatalities in the company’s badly managed Batam shipyard.
Nor do I face the perils of the sea, being mostly at my desk. Whilst the 18th century wit Samuel Johnson wrote of seafaring that, “being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned," the worst I face is a libel suit or a defamation action from an aggrieved ship owner in Athens, or carpal tunnel syndrome.
Every week I choose to write a column on the offshore industry for this august publication and for the last six years, I have not missed a column, holiday, work trips, offshore visits and man flu notwithstanding. Yet.
Indeed, some weeks the verbal diarrhoea output is so prolific that it warrants two columns for your edification. This regularity of publication creates problems with the anonymity of the authorship. If I were to take a couple of weeks off when it was known that in real life I was climbing Everest or trekking across the Antarctic like Ian Hughes, the adventurous COO of OEG Subsea, my cover might be blown. So even if I am dying of malaria, suffering a hangover after the epic Adipec conference in the UAE, or attending the winter Olympics in Italy, I need to write.
But what can I write about on a week like this one, when the offshore news is “slow”? We are a few weeks off from the annual Twelve Days of Christmas series of columns, and Tidewater only announces its third quarter results on Monday (10th) evening, after we go to press.
Slow news is a relative term. There is still a low buzz of contracting momentum in the background.
What is happening? Harvey Gulf was compelled encouraged by its lenders to sell its five subsea vessels to American rival Otto Candies – shades of Solstad selling its 37 platform supply vessels (PSVs) to Tidewater in 2023.
Fletcher Shipping’s Hercules Supply project company has pushed back the delivery of its newbuild Breeze design PSVs in China until March, we understand, and Sinopacific has also so far failed to sell its news building SPP design PSVs from the yard in China, even as they are to be delivered shortly.
The North Sea spot market remains mired in misery with Tidewater fixing the 2003 built PSV Symphony Tide (ex Far Symphony) for £5,000 (US$6,600) per day in the UK sector with CNR. As of Sunday, November 9, there are six PSVs available prompt in the UK and four in Norway and another eleven ships in total are due to come offhire tomorrow (November 10) in Bergen and Aberdeen, so the week ahead looks wintery for PSVs.
However, anchor handlers have been fixing much more strongly, with two million krone rates (US$197,000) reported in October in the Norwegian sector. Tidewater secured £55,000 (US$72,000) per day for the 230-ton bollard pull anchor handling towing supply (AHTS) Pacific Discovery for the rig move of the jackup Valaris 248, and Sea1 Offshore claimed £80,000 (US$105,000) per day for its 250-ton bollard pull AHTS Magne Viking for the same rig move.
Even so, anchor handling utilisation on the spot market stood at less than 50 per cent in the North Sea in October.
In their excellent newsletter Seabreeze, Seabrokers reported that the divergence in rates between PSVs and anchor handlers was a function of an exodus of large AHTS to new markets outside the North Sea.
The shipbrokers reported that Island Victory, Normand Sigma, Skandi Jupiter and Skandi Mercury had left northern Europe to Brazil, whilst Horizon Arctic, Levoli Grey and Normand Sapphire had departed for projects in the Mediterranean, and Ben Viking, Skandi Hera, Skandi Laser and Skandi Minder had been contracted on a spot job in Congo for the installation of Eni’s latest floating LNG vessel there, although these four vessels were expected to return to Aberdeen in early December when the Eni work was finished.
One other benefit of the Seabreeze newsletter is that Seabrokers confirmed the identity of some of the buyers of some of the vessels the Chinese leasing house ICBC has sold via online auction (here). The next auction is of the in-service, in-class Bourbon Gomen, an 80-ton bollard pull, diesel-electric anchor handler, on November 21.
Vietnam’s Tan Cang Offshore Services has been confirmed as the buyer of the 80-ton bollard pull AHTS Bourbon Kaimook. The 2012-built vessel was warm-stacked and in-service and has now been renamed as TC Princess. Additionally, Tan Cang also bought the long term laid up Bourbon Ampan (built 2013, now TC Apollo) and Bourbon Morrakot (built 2009, now TC Poseidon).
Meanwhile Seabrokers report that Britoil was the buyer of the Bourbon Phet, which is being reactivated in Batam. That 2011-built, 80 ton AHTS vessel has been renamed Britoil Courage.
Also in October, Britoil took delivery of the newbuild AHTS Britoil Diligence from the Jiangsu Nantong Tongshun shipyard in China. Britoil Diligence has a length of 73 metres, a beam of 17.2 metres, and a clear deck area of 470 square metres.
With a main engine output of 8,040 hp (6,000 kW), the vessel has an alleged bollard pull of 121 tons, which we have to doubt could ever be replicated anywhere outside a Chinese shipyard, but that’s what the brochure says and who are we to argue? Wonders never cease in Chinese yards, but advertising such high bollard pulls is frankly embarrassing to the laws of mechanics.
The vessel has accommodation for 60 total persons onboard.
Britoil is also rumoured to be selling many of the 5,150hp (3,840kW) AHTS it acquired when it purchased Vroon Offshore Services two years ago, so we look forward to seeing some disposals announced shortly.
Based on Britoil Diligence bollard pull pro rata, those smaller AHTS should be capable of 76 tons bollard pull, but they are not. Nor is Tidewater’s Pacific Discovery achieving the pro rata 268 tons BP, either.
Enough said.
Seadrill reported its results last week, with a small net loss of US$11 million for the quarter, but strong cashflows from operations and five contract awards for its deepwater fleet.
West Gemini secured a 280-day contract with Sonangol Exploração e Produção in Angola commencing in December 2025 or January 2026. Sonangol is tendering for PSVs for the rig support with Blue Ridge Management rumoured to be the front runners.
The two rigs Seadrill manages for Sonangol in their joint venture also scored awards in Angola that see them roll over from their existing contracts.
Sonangol Libongos received an award from Azule Energy (the BP–Eni joint venture) with an estimated term of 525 days, in direct continuation of the rig’s previous program in August 2025. Sonangol Quenguela received a contract with TotalEnergies in Angola for 210 days, also in direct continuation of the previous program that finished last month.
There were also two wins in the US Gulf for Seadrill, where the drillship West Vela was awarded two contracts, adding over four months of firm term, and securing the rig into the second half of 2026 with Walter Oil and Gas and then Talos.
The cylindrical floater Sevan Louisiana also won 70 days more work in the US Gulf commencing this month in direct continuation of the current program.
None of this is groundbreaking stuff, but it reminds us that even in a US$60 oil price environment, deepwater is still viable and oil companies are still moving ahead with new projects, thankfully.
Transocean’s third quarter results were also mixed. The company reported a dreadful headline loss of US$1.9 billion after it wrote down the value of a bunch of laid-up rigs that it intends to scrap after years of cold stack, as we had reported earlier.
There was also a hit from the conversion of debt into equity. Excluding the one-off write downs, the company's adjusted net income for the third quarter was US$62 million.
Revenue was up, cashflow from operations was up, and the company’s net debt was reduced to only US$4.8 billion, slightly above its market capitalisation of US$4.3 billion. The good news for Transocean is that it is effectively break-even at current market rates, but analysts estimate that every US$100,000 increase in deepwater day rates is worth around US$700 million in annual pre-tax profits to Transocean.
In September the company issued an investor presentation where it forecast that high-specification, harsh-environment semisubs would hit 95 per cent utilisation in late 2026, whilst deepwater drillships would be at 95 per cent utilisation in early 2027.
Ninety-five per cent is the magic mark where day rates increase exponentially. The pop will be in the second of next year if the company’s forecasts are correct.
In the jackup segment, the CEO of Borr Drilling told analysts that, "the jack-up market has bottomed, and we're seeing clear inflection in rig demand across key regions, including Saudi Arabia and Mexico."
This positive sentiment came on the back of Borr’s quarterly results, which showed the company made net income of US$27.8 million, a decrease of US$7.3 million or 21 per cent compared to the second quarter of 2025. Again, mixed.
Like Seadrill, Borr announced some contract wins, with three contract extensions in Mexico. The jackups Galar and Gersemi each received a two-year firm extension at improved commercial and payment terms. A third rig, the Njord, also received an extension.
Most importantly, Borr confirmed what its competitor Paratus had earlier advised – Pemex has restarted payments to contractors in September, and Borr received US$19 million against its overdue invoices from the heavily indebted state oil company.
Borr noted that, “these inflows, together with recent government actions to strengthen Pemex finances, are the basis for our confidence in the continued normalization of payments.”
That would be great if it happens.
Borr also announced contract wins for the jackups Odin and Gird in the US Gulf and in Angola.
Where will the rigs working under the new rig contracts foreseen by Transocean be working?
There have also been announcements of new exploration activity in what I shall henceforth refer to as the “3G” countries, the implausible grouping of Greece, Guinea-Bissau and Gabon – all countries that the deepwater revolution has so far bypassed. This is a reminder that the oil majors are hungry to rebuild their reserves and are willing to look further afield after multi-billion barrel discoveries in Guyana, Suriname, and Namibia in recent years.
In Greece, ExxonMobil has taken a stake in the Energean-operated Block Two in the Greek sector of the Ionian Sea, which Energean claims is, “the largest untested offshore prospect in the Mediterranean Sea.”
A wildcat is expected to be drilled in 2027 and if it goes ahead, this would be the first offshore exploration well drilled in Greece in over 40 years. Energean reckons that the drilling prospect close to the Italian maritime boundary has the potential to contain around 10 trillion cubic feet (280 million cubic metres) of gas.
ExxonMobil will buy a 60 per cent stake in the block, Upstream reported. The supermajor already has undeveloped gas discoveries off Cyprus and in Egyptian waters.
Meanwhile, last month, ExxonMobil also signed an agreement with the Government of Gabon to explore that African country’s deepwater acreage, Reuters reported, although no dates for drilling or targets have been identified yet.
In August, ExxonMobil had also reached an agreement with Trinidad and Tobago to explore offshore that Caribbean state in deepwater areas, more than 20 years since the American supermajor left the country.
Finally, Chevron has taken operatorship of two offshore blocks off the coast of Guinea-Bissau, Blocks 5B and 6B. The country has had some previous successful wildcats but has no current production and has never been an oil producer (to my knowledge).
Chevron interpret 2D and 3D seismic data from the two blocks, Reuters reported. Both BP and Woodside have made large discoveries in neighbouring Senegal, which are now in production.
So, even a slow news week potentially contains the seeds of a big news future.
Background reading
The headline in The Financial Times “How this 31-year-old made US$250 million in 30 months” is eye-catching enough. Then you read how “Christopher Eppinger kept trading Russian oil when sanctions meant others stopped.”
Surprise! He’s an amoral German who has bought a villa in the south of France that was formerly owned by one of that country’s biggest drug dealers, surely a more honest occupation than selling Russian crude “blended” in onshore tanks in the UAE. Presumably, it is crude delivered by tankers in the "dark fleet" from Russia.
There is not much we can add to journalist Tom Wilson’s description other than to observe that karma could be a thing and that boasting that you bought 300 bottles of Cristal champagne for your thirtieth birthday party from the profits of Russian crude is a little crass:
“Most importantly, rather than receiving the oil by ship, M&M introduced Mr Eppinger to a new company, Tejarinaft, which had recently been incorporated in one of Dubai’s free zones and could deliver fuel oil once it had already arrived in the United Arab Emirates, through what is known as an inter-tank transfer.
"Tejarinaft started to supply CE Energy with as much as 180,000 tonnes of fuel oil a month, most of which it sent to GPS for onward sale to Uniper. (GPS did not respond to requests for comment.)
The Tejarinaft fuel oil had originally come from Russia, Eppinger said. But by the time it arrived with CE Energy, through the Fujairah tank system, it had a certificate showing that it had been blended in the UAE, which was good enough for CE Energy’s lawyers and, apparently, good enough for Uniper. CE Energy used the same fuel oil to supply Vitol, which also has a refinery in Fujairah. (Uniper and Vitol declined to comment.)”
Enough said. Blended crude, blended ethics – all the right paperwork for all the wrong people.
