North Star, the Aberdeen-based operator of emergency support vessels in the North Sea, is today announcing new contracts worth a total of more than £100 million.
The company told The Press and Journal the deals for its “fast response” fleet were with both new and existing clients, though it was unable to say who these were.
Some of the new wins are a continuation of projects with operators the 135-year-old maritime company has worked with since the 1980s.
North Star said the new work also included extension options and amounted to the firm’s “most sizeable emergency response rescue vessel (ERRV) order book in recent years”.
‘Ongoing confidence’
Chief executive Matthew Gordon said: “Winning these significant ERRV contracts worth £100m demonstrates the industry’s ongoing confidence in our highly effective and reliable fleet, which continues to provide a safe place in case of an incident for the thousands of people working out at sea on oil and gas assets every hour of every day, solidly across the year.
“North Star has supported the offshore energy sector for the past 40 years and we have an unrivalled expertise and high quality ERRV fleet.
“I’m proud to say we have never left any client’s offshore workforce unsupported, ensuring there is always a vessel on standby to enable any crew changes, help to replenish stores on the installation, or support regular maintenance.”
Mr Gordon added: “The North Sea is still a very competitive landscape.
“We recognise the need for continual investment in our fleet and services to ensure we deliver value and efficiencies to remain market-leading.”
Part of this involves plans to introduce a new fleet management system and decarbonise operations, he said.
North Sea’s biggest
North Star is the North Sea’s largest emergency response vessel operator.
The company provides crew rescue, firefighting and other emergency response services to offshore operations in the North Sea.
It employs about 1,400 people, working out of bases in Aberdeen, Newcastle and Lowestoft.
The firm has 41 ERRVs which are currently assigned to support 50 offshore oil and gas installations in the region.
Plans to decarbonise the whole fleet in line with a 2040 net-zero target has started with an “in-depth” sustainability study across all 47 of its offshore infrastructure support vessels.
North Star said it had also invested a six-figure sum in a fleet management system, Sertica, as part of its digitisation strategy to “streamline the business and support further efficiencies”.
Last year the company entered the UK offshore wind market and announced a £96m finance package to support its vessel-building plans.
The cash will fund the build of three new service operations vessels (SOVs), which will be delivered to the huge Dogger Bank offshore wind farm – the world’s largest – under a contract of at least 10 years.
North Star now says it has quickly established itself as the leading provider of SOVs for both transporting technicians to offshore wind farms and accommodating them for extended periods.
New owner
Earlier this year it was announced the company had been acquired by Swiss-based private equity firm Partners Group.
The new owner, who replaced Basalt Infrastructure Partners, aims to create a “leading pan-European, next-generation offshore wind infrastructure services company”.
Mr Gordon added: “The offshore wind sector is on an upwards trajectory across Europe, and we are in a very strong position to capitalise on our growing momentum to secure further new business in this sector.”
