A Hong Kong-based ship management company is targeting the specialist offshore sector after it took over the day-to-day technical management of a US$140 million pipe-laying barge, the first such ship to be built in China.
The Hong Kong-registered vessel, Fortuna, is the second ship in the past month to fly the territory's Bauhinia flag in Russia's harsh Arctic environment after being deployed to exploit gas resources in Sakhalin in the Russian Far East.
Peter Cremers, chief executive of the Anglo-Eastern Group, said the 63,594 deadweight tonne ship was the first pipe-laying vessel on the Hong Kong shipping register and was 'quite sophisticated', operating like a floating factory.
He said sections of pipe are brought to the barge where they are welded together, tested, and then laid in a continuous process that enable about one kilometre of pipeline to be laid on the seabed a day.
About 80 of the 311 people on board are employed by Anglo-Eastern Ship Management to maintain the barge on behalf of its Luxembourg-based owner, Maritime Construction Services, which is linked to a Russian offshore company.
Cremers said the introduction of the Fortuna into the Anglo-Eastern fleet, combined with moves by other owners to give the day-to-day management of their high-tech ships to the company, led Anglo-Eastern to launch 'a dedicated offshore ship management division'.
'With China doing a lot of offshore projects, we are well situated to do offshore [business] in China as a ship manager,' he said.