A French operator has taken delivery of a new crewboat while construction continues on installation vessels in Vietnam and Norway. A Chinese yard has been selected to supply two subsea construction vessels. Lastly, work will proceed on unfinished drilling rigs.
French offshore services provider Bourbon has taken delivery of the first of two new 34-metre crewboats from Grandweld Shipyards of Dubai.
The delivery followed the completion of sea trials. The two vessels, Surfer 341 and Surfer 342, were designed by French naval architecture firm Mauric for the transport of offshore personnel.
Bourbon ordered the pair to fulfil a five-year charter with ExxonMobil announced in September 2025, covering personnel transfers between Soyo and Block 15, located off Angola.
Each crewboat has 60 business class-style passenger seats and a cruising speed of up to 38 knots. Bourbon said the vessels offer lower fuel consumption compared to the preceding 32-metre series, which it attributed to an electronic fuel monitoring system integrated during construction, as well as greater operational redundancy.
Vard launched a new energy construction vessel (ECV) at its Vard Vung Tau shipyard in Vietnam on Tuesday, October 27.
The vessel, NB985, is under construction for Wind Energy Construction. The founders and owners of Norwind Offshore hold part ownership in the Norwegian company. Vard said delivery remains scheduled for the second quarter of 2027.
The ECV combines a walk-to-work gangway, electrically controlled and compensated for motion in three dimensions, with a 150-tonne subsea crane compensated for heave.
When it announced the order in August 2024, VARD described NB985 as a construction vessel that would be its first to have a permanently installed motion-compensated gangway. The gangway specification includes integrated 3D-compensated crane functionality.
Siem Industries has ordered two offshore subsea construction vessels (OSCVs) from China's Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding, with deliveries scheduled for 2029 and 2030.
Sirius Design and Integration worked with Siem and the shipyard to develop the design. Each vessel will have a length of 145 metres and a beam of 27 metres.
The OSCVs will each be fitted with a 400-tonne active-heave-compensated (AHC) subsea crane and a 50-tonne AHC subsea crane.
Siem said the design prioritises flexibility in operations and efficient energy use. The company added that the vessels are intended to undertake varied work throughout the offshore energy sectors.
Singapore's Seatrium will complete construction of four offshore drilling rigs for Rigco, a wholly owned subsidiary of Keppel, under an agreement announced on Monday, October 26. The estimated total contract value is over SG$500 million ($391 million).
The work falls under the master services agreement already in place between the two companies. It will be funded from cash retained in Rigco, which owns the four units.
The seventh-generation drillship Can Do is expected to be delivered to Rigco in 2027, followed by the harsh-environment jack-up Jasper in 2028.
Construction plans for the mid-water semi-submersibles Nordic Winter and Nordic Spring are still being assessed. Seatrium said both are designed for the harshest environments of Northwest Europe.
Italian cable manufacturer Prysmian's new cable-laying vessel Prysmian Alessandro Volta has begun sea trials in Norway, the company and shipbuilder Vard announced on Friday, October 23.
Vard said the trials are being conducted from its Søviknes shipyard. Prysmian said the vessel would then join its fleet to lay power cables beneath the sea.
The 192.8-metre vessel is the largest ever launched by Vard.
The DP3 cable layer can carry 19,000 tonnes across its three carousels, and its tensioner system can withstand a maximum tension of 60 tonnes. It is designed to lay power cables in water depths of up to 1,500 metres.