Maersk Supply Service (MSS) has reduced the pool of North Sea offshore vessels further by selling two ships out of the oil and gas market.
The Danish company said the 23,500-bhp anchor-handling tug supply (AHTS) ship Maersk Advancer (built 2004) and Maersk Asserter (both built 2004) were offloaded on 12 June.
The shipowner added that the pair had gone to an international buyer and will be modified for use in a non-competing industry.
VesselsValue assesses them as worth $8.04m and $7.81m respectively.
MSS said the current dire market situation and the global over-supply of offshore supply vessels (OSVs) led it to dispose of the duo.
"As a response to the recent downturn in the oil and gas industry, we have re-evaluated our fleet composition and future fleet deployment," said chief commercial officer Carsten Gram Haagensen.
Not enough work
"As we expect insufficient commercial opportunities for Maersk Advancer and Maersk Asserter, we have concluded that a sale of these assets is the most attractive solution. With this, we continue to take active steps to right-sizing the supply side of the market that the OSV industry needs for a sustainable recovery."
In 2016, the shipowner set out to reduce its fleet in response to the over-supply of ships, a situation made worse this year by the oil price fall and the coronavirus-related demand hit.
The vessels it has previously sold have been either recycled or modified by their new owners to compete outside of MSS's markets.
26 ships sold in last four years
MSS has offloaded 26 AHTS and platform supply vessels in the last four years, leaving it with 41 units.
The North Sea oil and gas support fleet has been shrinking quickly this year due to redeployments elsewhere and sales to other sectors like aquaculture, renewables and even charitable environmental work.
AHTS vessels are earning NOK 95,000 ($9,900) per day for rig moves in the North Sea this week.
Utilisation stands at 79%, according to Norwegian broker Westshore.
There are 20 AHTSs working spot in Norway and just nine in the UK, four of which are other Maersk ships.
In May, MSS said the slump had led it to cut costs with redundancies.
The company laid off 55 staff in a bid to reduce its onshore payroll.
UK broker Clarksons lists three MSS vessels as idle, and another 11 as laid up, seven of which are AHTSs.
There are a total of 30 AHTSs stacked in North Sea ports.
