Mermaid awarded Woodside OSV contract

MERMAID Marine has been awarded a contract to construct and operate an offtake support and supply vessel (OSV) for the Enfield Area Development Project, for Woodside Energy. The vessel will support the Enfield floating production storage and offtake (FPSO) unit, which will be located on Western Australia’s North West Shelf. Mermaid chief executive Jeff Weber said the contract was worth approximately $5 million to the group’s revenue stream. According to Mermaid, the tender application was demanding in terms of finding environmentally friendly solutions with high levels of quality, safety and redundancy required. The 50m vessel, to be named the Mermaid Sound, will use the latest diesel electric stern drive technology with construction costing $12 million. The vessel is scheduled to commence support and production operations in 2006, Mermaid said. The local company also announced finalisation of the $6 million acquisition of another vessel in line with the company’s fleet renewal policy. To be called the Mermaid Guardian, the vessel will spend the first three months working in Russian waters on an offshore construction project.