Canadian offshore accommodation specialist Bridgeman Services is sending its largest offshore asset to Alang in India.
The company's 17,900-gt offshore accommodation and repair vessel Bluefort (built 1979) departed Jebel Ali on 17 September with the Indian shipbreaking centre listed as its final destination.
Its arrival was scheduled for Wednesday.
TradeWinds was unable to obtain confirmation from the Richmond-based company whether the ship would be beached for recycling, which scrap industry sources have claimed is reason for it being sent to Alang.
The Bluefort was last used in an accommodation role off Mozambique, but has been idle since that contract ended in June.
Offshore market sources said there is little demand for large floating accommodation units.
Bridgemans is one of the largest floating accommodation providers, with most of its contracts utilizing chartered ropax ferries.
The biggest ropax it has chartered for this role, the 59,900-gt Silja Europa (built 1993), was chartered from the Tallink Group for 14 months in 2014 and 2015 to provide accommodation at Chevron's Gorgon gas field in Australia.
The company acquired the Bluefort in 2015 as ARV1 from the liquidators of Singapore-based Equinox Offshore Accommodation.
Equinox, which was launched at the peak of the offshore markets in 2007, acquired a handful of large ropax ferries for conversion into offshore accommodation and repair vessels.
The ARV1, previously Tallink’s Meloodia, was the first ship to undergo the extensive conversion, and was launched into a market badly hit by the 2008 global financial crisis.
Cash constraints and charters that ended badly saw Equinox put under judicial management in 2013.
