Stolt Offshore charters CS Pertinacia

Offshore staff

(UK) - Stolt Offshore SA has entered into an agreement with ELETTRA TLC SpA to charter theCS Pertinacia for a firm period of six years from January 2007, plus an additional three year option. The vessel will be delivered to Stolt Offshore in July 2006 for conversion before the start of the working period.

TheCS Pertinacia is owned and operated by ELETTRA TLC SpA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Med Nautilus SA (70% Telecom Italia) having a history of survey, installation and repair of submarine cable systems in the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Built in Italy in 2002 as a cable lay vesselCS Pertinacia is 130 m in length with a 23-m beam and is fitted with dynamic positioning. The vessel's size, configuration and power makes her eminently suitable for flexible pipelay and subsea construction activities.

Alan West, vice president asset development projects said "As with thePolar Queen, which will also join our fleet in January 2007, the CS Pertinacia is one of a few recently built and seldom used vessels of this type that are particularly well-suited for conversion for the subsea construction market. She will provide much needed additional capacity and flexibility to our fleet in a market indicating high demand in
the years to come."

Giovanni Muti, president of ELETTRA, said, "The agreement reached with Stolt Offshore is the result obtained by the company in the process of looking outside its traditional market and represents the first tangible step towards diversification of the ELETTRA business."

10/06/05