Aker wins Sub Sea IMR vessel

Aker Yards has signed a contract worth approximately $76 million to build a Sub Sea IMR (inspection, maintenance and repair) vessel for ?stensj? Rederi AS. The 108.7 m long and 23 m wide vessel will be delivered summer 2007.

Main duties for the 6,200 DWT newbuilding, which is an ST 255 design from Skipsteknisk AS, Ålesund, will be inspection, maintenance and repair (IMR), including tasks within ROV operations and light construction work. The vessel will be equipped with two hangars with a totally integrated module handling tower, skidding systems and Launch & Recovery systems for Work ROV’s. All the main operations will take place inside the closed hangars.

?stensj? Rederi AS has been assigned a five years contract with 3 x 1 years option by DeepOcean AS and Statoil. This contract confirms that the market for specialized vessels is continuing to develop positively. The last vessel delivered to ?stensj? from Aker Yards was in 1997.

This vessel is unique by the combination of its size and the fact that the design, the owner and the builder are all Norwegian and that it will be operating for Statoil.