PSV Blue Fighter to Work in North Sea for Apache

The platform supply vessel M/V Blue Fighter of PX121 design delivered by ULSTEIN in January has won a contract with American company Apache for work in the North Sea.

The ship was delivered from Ulstein Verft to Blue Ship Invest on 19 January, and entered the spot market in the British North Sea sector directly. After only days of operation in the spot market, the vessel will enter into a long-term contract as of next week.

Remøy Shipping has technical and commercial management of the vessel. “We are now in transit to Aberdeen where we will load before returning to the field,” reported Captain Trygve Valø yesterday afternoon. After a week in operation, the Captain and his crew are very pleased with the vessel’s performance. “Everything is working well – she is a good ship,” he concludes.

Frank Strandebø in Blue Ship Invest joined the vessel her first week in operation. He himself is a captain and got to test the ship in 8 metre waves: “It takes eleven hours from Aberdeen to the oil rig we have been working for, and with some spells of bad weather en route, we got evidence of the ship’s great sea-keeping qualities. She has soft and smooth movements and the X-BOW allows her to keep a higher constant speed in head sea.”

Strandebø greets the Blue Fighter project team in Ulstein Verft with the following: “This vessel is top notch. Everything has been working perfectly on the first trip, so all credit to the project team for the work you’ve done.”

The ship has a length of 83.4 metres and a beam of 18 metres. It has a cargo deck of 875 square metres and a load capacity of 4200 tonnes (dwt). Among others the ship meets the requirements of DNV’s Clean Design notation. It has a maximum speed of circa 15 knots and modern accommodation for 24 persons.

Apache is an oil service company with operations world-wide. Blue Fighter will be stationed in Peterhead, Scotland.

Blue Ship Invest is a company owned by ULSTEIN. The company has entered into a management agreement for Blue Fighter with Remøy Shipping.

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Offshore Nieuws Staff , February 3, 2012; Image: Ulstein