Confidence In The North Sea
The latest addition to the North Star Shipping managed fleet is the aptly christened Grampian Confidence. Launched early this year the Confidence creates a further thirty jobs for officers and crew in the North Sea. An NSS-IMT 948 designed ERRV (Emergency Response and Rescue Vessel) the Confidence is a multi-million pound vessel that is equipped with two daughter craft and one fast rescue craft.
The newly launched vessel is part of an ongoing investment programme, worth GBP 130 million, by global shipping and energy services firm The Craig Group that began in 2003. A total of seven vessels of this type are currently in service and a further four, of which the Confidence is one, are on course to be delivered in the next twelve months. So far the expansion and ongoing modernisation of the fleet has delivered twelve vessels, ERRV’s, PSV’s and a ROV Survey vessel.
She is the eight vessel of this class launched and joins the fleet to support operations with CNR International at the Ninian Complex in the East Shetland basin in April 2010. Taking over from the Grampian Crusader, which currently maintains operations at Ninian, the Confidence is an exact sister ship to the Grampian Corsair, Contender and Courageous, all of which have secured long term contracts in the North Sea.
North Star Managing Director, Callum Bruce, said: “We are delighted that the Grampian Confidence will continue the work on the Ninian complex which North Star has supported since the early 1990’s. The vessel’s completion marks the continuation of our extremely successful investment programme which began in 2003. Emergency Response and Rescue Vessels are an absolutely essential part of the industry’s oil and gas exploration and production operations in the North Sea. We are constantly looking at ways of modernising our fleet through new builds using the most up to date vessel technology and designs.”