Swire Seabed Shuttered

Swire Pacific Offshore (SPO) announced that it will be closing its wholly owned subsea services subsidiary, Swire Seabed AS and its three associated companies as oilfield services firms continue to feel the effects of the pronged industry downturn.

“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,” SPO’s Managing Director, Peter Langslow, said in a statement. “Over the years, the Swire Seabed team has had a number of significant achievements and I would like to recognize the hard work and professionalism of our colleagues, both seafarers and shore-based employees.”

Swire Seabed will close along with Swire Seabed Subsea AS, Swire Seabed Shipping AS and Swire Seabed Sea AS effective from the end of February 2020, SPO said.

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’s OSV services and its offshore windfarm installation business, Swire Blue Ocean, will not be affected by these changes, the company said.

SPO said that Swire Seabed has consulted staff representatives and also communicated with the employees in the Swire Seabed companies ahead of the announcement, and that SPO will render support to employees of Swire Seabed and assist them in their career transitions.