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Home > Press Room PRESS RELEASE: December 21, 2009
J. Ray McDermott Acquires Interests in Subsea
Construction Vessels
Houston-based J. Ray McDermott, S.A. (“J.
Ray”), a subsidiary of McDermott International, Inc.
(NYSE: MDR), announced today the completion of a vessel
transaction with Oceanteam ASA (OSL: OPU) for the subsea
construction vessel,
North Ocean 102
(“NO102”) and a new build vessel, North
Ocean 105 (“NO105”).
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Under the terms of the transaction,
J. Ray will have an approximately fifty percent
ownership stake in the NO102 vessel owning company and a
seventy-five percent ownership stake in the NO105 vessel
owning company – and will partner with Oceanteam to
construct the new build NO105. J. Ray has agreed to
charter the vessels for five years from these respective
companies, after which, J. Ray will have the option to
purchase Oceanteam’s shares in both vessel owning
companies.
“The
addition of the NO102 and the new build NO105
to the J. Ray
fleet will provide us with versatile subsea and
deepwater installation equipment to support our growing
subsea capabilities across a range of water depths
worldwide,” said Bob Deason, President and Chief
Executive Officer of J. Ray. Outfitted with state-of-the-art
marine construction equipment, J. Ray intends to use the
new construction vessels to install a wide variety of
products and facilities for the offshore oil and gas
industry, including submarine power cables, control
cables and umbilicals, flexible pipelines, rigid-reeled
pipelines, subsea components and hardware, as well as
deepwater moorings for floating facilities. “We aim to pursue high-growth subsea
markets around the world,” said Deason. “Leveraging
these two new marine construction assets with our
worldwide subsea engineering capabilities, the NO102
and, after construction, the NO105 will improve our
overall EPCI offering in subsea, floating and
conventional project installation work.” The 427-foot NO102 should enable J.
Ray to be an immediate player in the flexible pipe
installation market. J. Ray expects to take delivery of
the NO102 in the third quarter of 2010 following
completion of the current vessel charter. The vessel has
two cranes and a moon pool to support deepwater subsea
construction work and has a fast transit speed. It is
currently equipped with a 7,000-ton capacity cable,
umbilical and flexible pipe carousel with horizontal lay
system.
J. Ray
plans to
further upgrade the vessel’s capability by
installing a high-capacity flexible-lay system for ultra
deepwater installation work. The upgrade will include
installation of a new 250-ton crane. The second vessel, the 427-foot
NO105, will be constructed at the Metalships & Docks
S.A.U. shipyard in Vigo, Spain. J. Ray plans to outfit
the vessel with a high capacity rigid-reeled pipe-lay
system with top-tier payload capacity. The system will
also accommodate installation of flexible products
including submarine cables and umbilicals and flexible
pipelines.
The anticipated delivery date of the NO105 is during the
last quarter of 2011, and is subject to completing the
Spanish Tax Lease structure under which the vessel will
be built.
Forward Looking Statements
In accordance with the
Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, McDermott
cautions that statements in this press release, which
are forward-looking and provide other than historical
information, involve risks and uncertainties that may
impact the actual results of the transaction. These
forward-looking statements include statements about the
growth in J. Ray’s subsea capabilities, the use of the
construction vessels, the improvement of J. Ray’s
overall EPCI offering, the flexible pipe installation
market, upgrades to the NO102, the outfit of the NO105,
the delivery of the NO102 following the completion of
its current charter, the anticipated delivery date of
the NO105 and J. Ray’s ability to meet the growing
demands of the technically challenging deepwater market.
Although we believe that the expectations
reflected in those forward-looking statements are
reasonable, we can give no assurance that those
expectations will prove to have been correct. Those
statements are made by using various underlying
assumptions and are subject to numerous uncertainties
and risks, including, without limitation, market
conditions, actions of third parties, financing of the
construction of the NO105, construction delays and
difficulties and the actual performance of the vessels.
If one or more of these risks materialize, or if
underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results
may vary materially from those expected, projected or
implied. For a more complete discussion of these and
other risk factors, please see McDermott's annual and
quarterly filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, including its annual report on Form 10-K and
quarterly reports on Forms 10-Q. Except to the extent
required by applicable law, McDermott undertakes no
obligation to update or revise any forward-looking
statement.
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For more information, please contact:
Louise Denly
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