Vietnam’s Thien Nan Offshore Services has emerged as the buyer of a pipelayer recently sold at auction in Singapore, as the country's high court disposes of unwanted offshore tonnage.

A second judicial sale saw Singapore’s Kim Heng Marine & Oilfield buy one of two anchor handling tug supply (AHTS) vessels that had been sold after languishing under arrest for many months.

Thien Nan has taken delivery of the 11,600-gt, non-propelled pipelaying vessel Swiber Concorde (built 2008), which went under the hammer for a third time at the end of December.

TradeWinds understands that none of the bids received at that auction met the required minimum reserve. But given the difficulty the court had in finding a buyer for the ship, it decided to accept Thien Nan’s offer and the deal was finalised at the end of January.

Court officials did not disclose the price Thien Nan paid for the vessel, and the new owner, which has no other ships listed under its control, could not be reached for comment on its plans for it.

This week, it also emerged that the 6,000-bhp AHTS units Pacific 8 (built 2003) and Pacific 28 (built 2004) — vessels previously operated by Singaporean offshore company Pacific Richfield — had been sold.

The pair was put up for auction three times last year, but each time no buyers were willing to offer the minimum reserve.

Kim Heng Marine & Oilfield was the buyer of the Pacific 8, but a company official said it was not involved in any deal for the Pacific 28.

Court officials indicate that the ships were sold earlier this month via private treaty, meaning that the court or the arresting creditors received an offer for the vessels that was ultimately approved by the judge handling the case.

Singaporean legal sources tell TradeWinds that while the High Court discourages extrajudicial sales of arrested ships, the court can show flexibility when necessary.

“I think that the court was practical enough to realise after three unsuccessful auction attempts that these ships would be difficult to sell, so they took what the gods offered,” said one legal observer.

With three sales done and dusted, the High Court of Singapore only has to dispose of two more offshore assets. The first is Pacific Richfield’s 8,000-bhp Pacific Bronze (built 2003), which was arrested along with its two aforementioned fleetmates in April 2017. All three had been in cold lay-up since 2015.

A second smaller offshore unit, Mer Afloat’s 3,900-bhp offshore tug/supply vessel Bheeman (built 1980), has been under arrest since May 2016.