North Star has been awarded a raft of new contracts totalling more than £100m to support new and existing clients in the UK Continental Shelf with its emergency fleet.
With additional year charter options, this marks the Aberdeen-based firm's most sizeable emergency response rescue vessel (ERRV) order book in recent years.
The company is the North Sea’s largest emergency response vessel operator, with 41 ERRVs in its fleet, currently assigned to support 50 offshore oil and gas installations in the region.
The business employs 1,400 personnel across the UK, including 140 deck and engineering cadets enrolled in its three-year training programme; now in its 26th year.
To enhance its growth, North Star has undertaken a sustainability study across its existing 47-strong offshore infrastructure support vessel fleet to help decarbonise its tonnage, enhance operational performance, and meet its net zero 2040 target.
It has also invested a six-figure sum in the fleet management software tool Sertica, as part of its digitisation strategy to streamline the business and support further efficiencies.
Chief executive Matthew Gordon said: “North Star has supported the offshore energy sector for the past 40 years and we have an unrivalled expertise and high quality ERRV fleet.
“The North Sea is still a very competitive landscape, and we recognise the need for continual investment in our fleet and services to ensure we deliver value and efficiencies to remain market leading.
“As part of this, we have looked to optimise our operations with a new maritime fleet management system and begun the process of decarbonising our entire fleet.”
Last year, North Star entered the UK’s offshore wind market and established itself as a provider of service operation vessels (SOVs), which are used to transport technicians to offshore wind farms and accommodate them for extended periods of time.
At the start of this year, Swiss private markets firm Partners Group announced its plan to acquire North Star from Basalt Infrastructure Partners, pivoting it to a pan-European offshore wind infrastructure services company.
Gordon added: “The offshore wind sector is on an upwards trajectory across Europe, and we are in a very strong position to capitalise on our growing momentum to secure further new business in this sector.”
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