Prosafe extends standstill as its seeks 'workable solution' with COSCO

Semi-submersible accommodation vessel owner and operator Prosafe issued an update to the market on Friday, saying it remained “committed” to its fleet high-grading and renewal strategy, and was continuing to work with COSCO Shipping to find a workable commercial solution.

The company said that as a result, the parties had agreed to extend the standstill agreement related to Safe Nova and Safe Vega until 27 July.

If no agreement was reached, Prosafe said it retained the right to claim cancellation of the new build contracts due to delay, and claim repayment of the instalments paid including interest of around $60m in total, secured by a refund guarantee from the Bank of China.

“Meanwhile the Safe Eurus is in a preserved, strategic stacking mode with COSCO,” the company’s board added.

“The vessel must be delivered before end 2019.”