Reef Subsea AS announced today that they have been awarded a contract with Talisman Energy (UK) Ltd for the provision of two maintenance support vessels. Reef Subsea’s newly delivered vessels, Reef Despina and Reef Larissa, will fulfil the contract for Talisman, which involves supporting the company’s Brownfields Modification Programme on selected UK offshore fields.

The contract calls for 230 working days in total for both vessels in a period ranging from May to September 2012. It also bears options for additional services and for an extended period. The project will be managed by Technocean, one of Reef Subsea’s Norwegian companies.

Reef Despina and Reef Larissa, which were chartered last November from Neptune Offshore AS for five years, have just been through an enhancing programme at A&P Tyne in Newcastle to better address the Oil & Gas and Renewable Energy client’s needs.

The enhancement programme has included an increase in the total accommodation numbers from 60 to 75 persons, installation of a dedicated deck of power supplies for project equipment on the aft working deck and an additional HiPaP 501 referencing and positioning system. Further work has included the replacement of the existing wet exhaust system with a new dry exhaust system. The project was completed with the mobilisation of two Work Class ROVs on each vessel (XLX, XLS or XLR systems) in the purpose built ROV hangar, the installation of a survey suite and state of the art information and communications network on board.

The vessels have just successfully completed sea trials, and initial reports from the trials and transit have confirmed that the vessels have performed extremely well, with excellent dynamic positioning capability and very good ship motions in heavy seas.

Chief Operating Officer of Reef Subsea, Tim Sheehan, said: ”This contract is a significant milestone for the Reef Subsea Group and sees the operational deployment of our latest two new—build vessels into the market. We look forward to working with Talisman Energy (UK) Ltd to successfully meet the objectives of the Project and further fulfil additional projects for the Company. We expect the vessels provide operators, top tier contractors and engineering houses with flexible, competitive and environmentally friendly light subsea construction & survey vessels. Despina and Larissa have been designed for worldwide operations, and we expect their X bow shape to become familiar to projects under all latitudes.”

Reef Subsea Chief Executive Officer, Mark Preece, said: ”This contract, coupled with the favourable reception we get from our clients and prospects with the positive upturn in the Oil & Gas industries, confirms we made a good move when chartering the vessels for five years. Our strategy is to be recognised as a reliable contractor in key specialised areas of subsea services providing excellent service to our clients. We are delighted to get confidence from Talisman for the first assignment of the sister ships together.”