Service On The High Seas

BY IAN CAMERON

Siem Offshore and Subsea 7 have signed a joint three-year service agreement with Rolls-Royce under which Rolls-Royce will maintain and service all of the equipment it has delivered to the two companies’ offshore vessels.

The deal covers a total of 74 vessels and is the first agreement the two Norwegian-headquartered Siem-owned companies have signed with the same service provider.

At present, aftermarket services account for approximately 40% of Rolls-Royce Marine’s revenues, the company said, with long-term agreements accounting for around a quarter of that total.

“We have delivered equipment to around a quarter of the world’s registered fleet,” said Knut Hovland, Rolls-Royce, director, Marine Services. “As a result, we also have service assignments and long-term agreements with a large number of ship owners globally. We also have a network of service stations at 34 locations world-wide, so we can be close by whenever equipment needs servicing or repair.”

Rolls-Royce also announced it recently signed its first “power-by-the-hour” agreement with the Norwegian logistics and cargo company Nor Lines.

“We are particularly pleased to sign new service agreements in these current times,” said Hovland. “We have obviously been affected by the fact that many vessels in the offshore market are still laid up and it will be interesting to see what impact this will have on the service market going forward.”

Rolls-Royce added that it is now exploring digital opportunities to provide ship owners with a growing range of new and more effective service solutions. These include new types of services based on monitoring of ships’ operations and equipment from control centers located on shore.

One of Subsea 7’s most prestigious vessels is the Bahamas-flagged, 182 m Seven Borealis pipelaying and heavy lift vessel which is powered by six Rolls-Royce B32:40 V12A diesel engines producing 5760 kW each at 720 r/min. The 2012-built vessel also incorporates an MTU V12 4000 Series emergency/harbor generator rated 1600 kW, as well as Rolls-Royce azimuth thrusters.

“Naturally, we believe we can save money by jointly entering into this kind of service agreement,” said Steinar Sandberg, Siem Group, head of Group Procurement. “We have a modern and technically advanced fleet that requires good follow-up throughout the vessels’ working lives.”