Norway’s Eidesvik Offshore has exited seismic survey shipping less than four months after putting the fleet up for sale.

The Oslo-listed company said it has agreed to offload the final three survey vessels to two separate unnamed buyers.

The ships are the 105-loa Viking Vision (built 1993), 93-loa Veritas Viking (both built 1998) and 93-loa Vantage (built 2002).

All three are in lay-up and have been held as assets for sale in the company accounts.

Delivery is expected during the summer and Eidesvik will then book a gain of NOK 63m ($5.6m).

Chief executive Gitte Gard Talmo said: “We are pleased to announce the sale of these non-strategic assets with a solid gain. The sale will further improve an already strong balance sheet.”

The two big western seismic players, Shearwater GeoServices and PGS, are potential buyers.

Earlier in May, Eidesvik sold the 92-loa Viking Vanquish (built 1992) to an unnamed owner.

The fleet of four seismic vessels was put up for sale in February.

All had been owned by Eidesvik between 2007 and 2012.

In its first-quarter report, the shipowner said the remaining trio was worth NOK 49m. The quartet had been valued at NOK 80.7m, suggesting a sales price of NOK 31.7m for the Viking Vanquish.

This was Eidesvik’s first listed ship sale since January 2022.

Bigger loss in first quarter

The company’s net loss widened in the first quarter to NOK 25m, against NOK 9.6m in the same period of 2021.

Revenue rose to NOK 129m from NOK 106.5m, but the bottom line was hit by financial income declining to NOK 9m from NOK 26.8m last year. Ebitda was NOK 27.8m.

The rest of the fleet consists of a service operation vessel (SOV) for the wind sector, three subsea ships and eight platform supply vessels (PSVs).

In February, Eidesvik formed a new joint venture with compatriot vessel operator Reach Subsea as part of its growth strategy.

Eidesvik is a majority shareholder in the company that will own and operate the 85-loa subsea inspection maintenance and repair (IMR) ship Edda Sun (built 2009) upon completion of the planned acquisition.

It will operate for Reach Subsea on a six-year time charter under the name of Viking Reach.