Page 17: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 2004)

Chouest Continues Aggressive Newbuild Program

News

Edison Chouest Offshore (ECO) plans to continue its newbuilding program.

Having already designed, built, owned and operated almost 70 new generation offshore vessels servicing the deepwater oil and gas industry over the past decade, the company plans for 11 new vessels, with options for an additional 14. Construction highlights feature three additional 280-ft. deepwater supply ves- sels, with an option for 10; four 160-ft. fast supply vessels, with an option for another four; three Norwegian-designed and built platform supply vessels; and a

Island Frontier 348-ft. survey support ship. The supply vessels and survey support ship are being constructed at ECO's shipbuilding facilities in Larose and Houma, La.; the fast supply vessels are designed and built at Breaux Brothers Enterprises in

Loreauville, La.

The reasons for the aggressive pro- gram are simple, according to ECO

President Gary Chouest. "We are con- tinuing to honor our commitment to build the types of vessels our customers are requesting." ECO's shipyards have already delivered the first four in the series of 280-ft. deepwater supply ves- sels, all currently working in the GOM.

The fifth in the series, the Kobe

Chouest, was to be delievered last month. Three additional vessels in the series have been committed to by

Chouest, the first to be delivered in

March 2005 and the others by year's end. The 280-ft. series features a dead- weight tonnage of 4,962 LT, as well as dedicated below deck tankage for 15,644 barrels of liquid mud and 1,826 barrels of methanol. The 160-ft. fast supply vessels will join a fleet of 11 oth-

Kobe Chouest, pictured at Edison Chouest's

North American Fabricators yard in Houma, La.

October 2004 ers currently operating for ECO domes- tically and internationally. The sched- uled delivery dates for the four new- builds are in March, July, September and December 2005.

The three Norwegian platform supply vessels will join a recently delivered subsea support vessel operating for

Island Offshore Shipholding LP, a joint venture between ECO and a prominent

Norwegian partner. The Island Frontier, built in Norway by the Soviknes Verft

AS on a Rolls Royce UT 737-L design, measures 348 x 78 x 28-ft.

The Island Frontier is capable of han- dling subsea installation and module operations, ROV operations, well inter- vention services, diving support, trench- ing, offshore pipe and cable laying, as well as transportation and loading of pipes, equipment and cargo.

INI UTICAST

The AIS Company. rience more AIS

The new 3 in 1 graphical display: More value for the same price!

UI: N 48-1 5 1 58" S0G:0.0kn

LON: E 16-2 5'22" C0G:0.0

GPS: 3D-INT ***********

IMO No. :

CallSign :

Ship Name :

Length :

Beam :

RefPoint :

Ship Type : 280° i 320.2° • 360°

Si 1 15nm 1 u / / / / / \ 30.0 fc / / 1 A ^

I.H i, \ |l f \ 20.0 £ 3 ! \ 10.0 / is / / f i—^ 1 1

Pack DS

Class A - SOLAS Transponder:

XS in size and XL in functions • One lightweight, compact single unit (2,5 kg / 5,5 lbs.) • Integrated VHF transmitter and receiver

Inbuilt keyboard and display

Plug and Play installation

Worldwide approved quality: - A Che J ton Group company - [email protected]

Circle 235 on Reader Service Card 17