20 September 2016 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal

ESS Support Services Worldwide (ESS) Offshore recently secured three contracts to deliver hotel and catering services on the newly constructed Jack-Up drilling rig Maersk Highlander, as well as two floatels (accommodation vessels).

The Maersk Highlander is currently operating in the UK sector of the North Sea. Built this year in Singapore, the unit has a capacity to hold 150 personnel, which will include 18 ESS Offshore staff. The contract will run for three years.

ESS Offshore will be responsible for catering for all personnel in the canteen, mess room and recreational areas as well as the maintenance of the cabins, an on-site gymnasium, and recreational rooms.

The floatels – the Safe Boreas and COSL Rival vessels – are predominantly used in the industry to provide support related to the maintenance and modification of installations on fields already in production, or the hook-up and commissioning of new fields, while also operating gangway connections to the installation they support.

The Safe Boreas vessel, also built in Singapore, is named after the Greek god of the north wind, and can accommodate 450 people in single-person cabins, while the COSL Rival floatel has a maximum capacity for 400 people in the UK in addition to containing a cinema, gymnasium and internet café at both sites.

The combined £3.5 million contract for the provision of hotel and catering services, operated from the North Sea, will see ESS Offshore station at least 80 staff across both vessels.