Since the early 80′s our company has been involved also in worldwide offshore exploration and development with dynamically positioned subsea support vessels.

The company currently owns and operates three vessels within offshore subsea support (the Polar Prince, the ‘Polarbjørn’ and the ‘Polar Queen’). In addition, the ‘Ernest Shackleton’ operates as an offshore support vessel 120  days during Q2/Q3 each year. Furthermore, the company has through a 51% owned joint venture company, ordered four offshore new buildings for delivery in 2009/2010.

The group has in recent years through strategic acquisitions invested heavily in expanding in the value chain within offshore subsea.

GC Rieber Shipping acquired a 52% shareholding in the subsea contractor Technocean in 2007 and has later increased the shareholding to 58%. Technocean is headquartered in Bergen (Norway) and constitutes GC Rieber Shipping’s bridgehead into the subsea support (IMR) market. The company possesses substantial competence on subsea operations, such as ROV operations, soil removal on seabed, inspections, maintenance and repair. The internationalization of Technocean is well in progress and the company will benefit from GC Rieber Shipping’s presence in Asia, as Singapore is a well suited starting point for addressing the growing markets in both Asia and West Africa.

In 2008, GC Rieber Shipping participated in a private placement which provided a 40 % shareholding in the geotechnical company Bluestone Offshore, which is headquartered in Singapore. The company is dedicated to deepwater (75m+) core drilling and is one of two players worldwide within this  market niche. The company owns and operates one ROV support vessel – the “Bluestone Topaz” – which during 2008 was upgraded to handle operations at water depths up to 1800m, which sufficient for most offshore locations.

Overview of GC Rieber Shipping’s subsea fleet:

RRS Ernest Shackleton

Since her delivery in 1995, the  RRS ‘Ernest Shackleton’ (previously ‘Polar Queen’)  has performed several tasks within ROV and ocean bottom seismic. Since 2000 the ship has worked  a number of summer seasons for the worlds largest subsea contractor; Acergy, undertaking ROV pipeline and platform inspections in the North Sea.

Polar Prince

In 1999, our company took a major step further into the offshore market when our newbuilding ‘Polar Prince’ was chartered for 6 years by Saipem’s subsidiary Sonsub Ltd for heavy-duty ROV and construction support duties.

The ‘Polar Prince’ has since proven to be a success, setting a new standard for this type of vessel.  In 2000-01 she was involved in the record-breaking Blue Stream pipelaying project in the Black Sea.During.  Other major projects by charterers Sonsub include the oilrecovery operation on the wreckage of tanker ‘Prestige’ off Spain, and the Green Stream pipelaying project off Egypt, where the Polar Prince supported ROV operations at a record-breaking 3850 meters.

The vessel’s 150 ton heave-compensated crane, large deck area and two moonpools are amongst the details that are valued by demanding clients within the offshore subsea market.

Polarbjørn

Our latest newbuilding – the  ‘Polarbjørn’ – was built in Norway in 2001. This vessel is an in-house design, built as an Antarctic expedition vessel, but also designed for advanced ROV and light construction- and cable support duties. Her DP2/AUTR class, large deck areas, knuckle-boom crane, large under-deck storage holds and accommodation for 84 charterers personnel makes this vessel an excellent working platform for demanding sub-sea contractors and their clients.

With her large number of berths, her large underdeck cargo holds and exceptional seakeeping characteristics, the ‘Polarbjørn’ has twice been chosen for accommodation- and base-ship charters, during which the ship has accommodated and catered for a large number of personnel.

Polar Queen

The largest ship of our fleet – the 146 meter long ‘Polar Queen’ , was  built in 2001 and purchased by us early 2005.  The ship has undertaken ROV and cable trenching work in the USGulf and the North Sea, and has since been engaged by Acergy for a 6 -11 year charter.  The ‘Polar Queen’ was therefore during 2006 converted into a purpose-built umbilical/flowline vessel for world-wide trading.

GC Rieber Shipping and private equity investor HitecVision have, in line with a stock exchange notice on 22 October 2009, established a 50/50 owned company, Reef Subsea AS.

Reef Subsea has received a capital injection of NKr 195 million and will, as part of the transaction, take over GC Rieber Shipping’s investments in the geotechnical company Bluestone Offshore Pte Ltd and the subsea service company Technocean AS, including the subsidiary Scan Mudring.

Reef Subsea has in parallel contributed US$17.5 million in new equity to Bluestone (94 per cent shareholding), which allows a restructuring of Bluestone’s balance sheet. Furthermore, Reef Subsea has committed to subscribe a planned NKr 75 million share issue in the Technocean (58 per cent shareholding). Bluestone and Technocean, including the subsidiary Scan Mudring, will thus secure a solid financial capacity for further growth within the company’s niches.

Bluestone has, as also as described in a stock exchange notice of 22 October 2009, entered into a time charter agreement with a subsidiary of GC Rieber Shipping for the vessel Greatship Maya.

Outfitting of Greatship Maya as a geotechnical vessel is now complete, and the vessel is ready to start its first two-month contract, conducting geotechnical surveys offshore Australia for NERC.