Swire Pacific Offshore (SPO) is shutting down its Bergen-based subsea arm Swire Seabed in the face of continued weakness in the offshore market.
The decision will see the Singapore-headquartered company close Swire Seabed Subsea AS, Swire Seabed Shipping AS and Swire Seabed Sea AS.
SPO said the change will take effect from the end of February 2020. It did not say how many members of staff have been affected by the decision.
The IMR and light construction vessels, which are currently managed by Swire Seabed, will be operated and marketed as part of SPO’s core fleet from the Singapore head office. The Norwegian vessels will be re-flagged to Singapore.
SPO said its OSV services and its offshore windfarm installation business, Swire Blue Ocean, would not be affected by these changes.
“It is an extremely difficult decision to close Swire Seabed’s operations in Bergen but the ongoing state of the market makes this restructuring of our subsea operations necessary,” said SPO managing director Peter Langslow.
“Over the years, the Swire Seabed team has had a number of significant achievements and I would like to recognise the hard work and professionalism of our colleagues, both seafarers and shore-based employees.”
SPO said Swire Seabed has consulted staff representatives and also communicated with the employees in the Swire Seabed companies.
It added that it will also render support to employees of Swire Seabed and assist them in searching for further employment.
SPO acquired the company in 2012 when it was a one-ship company called Seabed AS. It was founded in 2008 by Hans Martin Gravdal.
