Maersk Supply Service sells Maersk Advancer and Maersk Asserter vessels

Danish offshore marine services provider Maersk Supply Service has offloaded the Maersk Advancer and Maersk Asserter vessels, which are two of its older anchor handler tug supply vessels (AHTS vessels) for an undisclosed price.

The AHTS vessels have been divested to an international buyer and will undergo modifications for use in a non-competing industry.

Maersk Supply Service cited the sale on the prevailing market situation and the worldwide over-supply of offshore supply vessels.

Carsten Gram Haagensen – Chief Commercial Officer of Maersk Supply Service said: “As a response to the recent downturn in the oil and gas industry, we have re-evaluated our fleet composition and future fleet deployment.

“As we expect insufficient commercial opportunities for Maersk Advancer and Maersk Asserter, we have concluded that a sale of these assets is the most attractive solution. With this, we continue to take active steps to right-sizing the supply side of the market that the OSV industry needs for a sustainable recovery.”

Maersk Supply Service embarked on cutting down its fleet since 2016 in response to the worldwide over-supply of offshore support vessels. The offloaded AHTS vessels have been either recycled or modified by their new owners to compete outside of the offshore supply vessel segment, said Danish offshore marine services provider.

So far, 26 PSV and AHTS vessels have been sold by Danish offshore marine services provider, which will now be left with 41 vessels in its fleet.