Scotland's Fletcher Shipping has picked up a platform supply vessel (PSV) at a distressed price for work outside the oil and gas industry.
The company confirmed it purchased the 4,900-dwt UP Jasper (built 2011) for $1.5m, well below a VesselsValue assessment of $7.2m for further trading and $1.06m for demolition.
"It's got to be one of the best definitions of a ‘distressed’ sale," managing director Keith Fletcher told TradeWinds.
The VS483 MKII-type unit only has 20,000 hours on its main engines, he added.
"UP Jasper has been purchased for a multi-year charter outside the oil and gas sector," he said.
Further details will be provided when all the terms and conditions have been agreed, he added.
The vessel has been laid up in Blyth, England, since June 2015.
It will now be reactivated and renamed FS Aquarius.
The ship was previously owned by US owner Seacor Marine's joint venture UP Offshore.
It is one of a number of unwanted OSVs sold out of their traditional markets.
Fletcher is better known as the manager of vessels owned by Oystein Stray Spetalen's SD Standard Drilling.
Conversions reducing fleet
In October, SD's 4,800-dwt PSV Standard Provider (built 2010) was sold for work outside the oil and gas market.
An unnamed buyer paid $13.5m for the vessel, which SD bought for $11.1m in November 2017, giving it a $2.4m profit.
The high price was explained by its sale for conversion, industry sources said.
And a veteran PSV was reborn last year as a luxury multi-million dollar superyacht in the US.
The 1,650-dwt HOS Trader (built 1997) was lengthened as part of Voyager Maritime Alliance Group’s ‘Big Project’.
It is now called Voyager, having been formerly operated by Hornbeck Offshore Services.
Seacor has also sold the 3,300-dwt PSV Hellespont Drive (built 2009), Seabrokers reported.
India's ABS Marine Services has snapped up the unit and relocated it from West Africa to India. It has renamed it ABS Amelia.
The vessel was one of four UT 755LN PSVs that Seacor acquired in 2018 for prices of between $7m and $9m.
There are still 33 laid-up PSVs in North Sea ports, according to broker Westshore.
