Rig Tenders shareholders approve purchase of $7.7 million accommodation vessel

The shareholders of the publicly-listed PT Rig Tenders Indonesia had approved the company?s plan to purchase a US$7.7 million accommodation vessel and put a revenue target of Rp 6.9 billion (US$=Rp8,420) per year from the vessel, Investor Indonesia newspaper reported on Wednesday.

?The purchase of this vessel is related to the promising opportunity provided by the oil and gas exploration activities in Indonesia to ship leasing companies," Rig Tenders president director Dick Sadikin Sapi?ie told Investor after attending the company?s extraordinary shareholders meeting in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The meeting, according to Dick, approved the accommodation vessel purchase to increase the company's capacity in line with the market development in hiring of vessels for offshore operations.

?Since 2002, we have been receiving more hiring requests for offshore operations,? he added.

The vessel will be built at Chinese-based shipbuilder Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding Ltd.

Rig Tenders said construction of the 5,100 metric ton vessel would be completed in 2004 and China's largest offshore oil and gas company CNOOC would lease the vessel for its offshore rig activities in Java Sea.

The vessel will have the capacity to accommodate up to 250 people, Rig Tenders said last month in a statement

Rig Tenders is a public company and listed in the Jakarta and Surabaya Stock Exchanges. Its fleet of vessels include offshore utility vessels; anchor handling tug supply vessels, accommodation/ work barges, coal transport barges and tugs.

The company added it currently has three accommodation vessels. (*)