North Star Shipping, a unit of Aberdeen’s Craig Group, has been awarded a major new long-term contract with Talisman Energy (UK).
While the value of the five-year with multiple options package has not been disclosed, it is enough to encourage the family-owned group to create 50 further jobs and invest £50million in two purpose-built platform supply vessels designed at the Montrose office of OSD-IMT.
The two IMT-982 class vessels, still to be named, will be 83m long by 18m wide and feature high-efficiency diesel-electric propulsion systems that offer both fuel economy and flexibility of operation.
Craig says they have been specifically designed to meet the North Sea marine support requirements of Talisman.
As with so many of the company’s ships in the current fleet, the new sisters will be built at the Balenciaga Shipyard in Northern Spain and are due for delivery in the second and fourth quarter of 2013. They will bring the Craig Group fleet to 37 and reinforce its position as the biggest wholly-UK-owned offshore support fleet.
North Star’s MD, Callum Bruce, said: “The award of this contract secures our position at the forefront in the provision of vessels in the North Sea.
“Our major investment in state-of-the-art vessels supports the UK offshore industry and its employees as well as showing our continuing support to British shipping.”
Douglas Craig, chairman and MD of Craig Group, said: “Through continuous investment in our people, infrastructure and vessels, we are demonstrating our commitment to meeting the needs of clients with a service that is driven by safety and quality. The new vessels meet Talisman’s expectations in terms of safety, operability and efficiency and we continue to look for ways to provide the most innovative, cost-effective solutions for all our customers.”
The Craig Group fleet, operated by North Star, now stands at 31 vessels in service with a further six on order including the two just placed.
The other four comprise a batch of D-class emergency response and rescue units, the first of which . . . Grampian Don . . . was launched in Q3 last year.
The company has invested heavily in new tonnage over the last decade or so to ensure it remains at the forefront of offshore support vessel ownership and operation in the North Sea. Its ability to do this is enhanced by the fact that Craig is family-owned.
On January 18, it announced healthy financials for the year ended April 2011. It reported a turnover of £111.9million with operating profits of £13million. This is up on the previous year when turnover was just over £92million and profits were £10million.