Offshore staff

COVINGTON, Louisiana –Hornbeck Offshore Services Inc. (NYSE:HOS) has increased its Newbuild Program 5 and begun a new retrofit program.

Under the newbuild program, Hornbeck has exercised four of 48 options to build HOSMAX vessels at an aggregate incremental cost of $180 million. Vessel deliveries are scheduled for 4Q 2014 and 1Q 2015. This brings Hornbeck’s newbuild offshore service vessel fleet to 20 DP-2 vessels.

All 20 vessels are to be built in the Unites States to qualify under Jones Act regulations but to be available for other markets.

The HOSMAX class DP-2 vessel designs contemplated by this program feature three different size vessels (300, 310, and 320 ft, or 91, 94, and 97 m, respectively, in length) each with cargo-carrying capacities ranging from 5,650 to 6,200 deadweight tons and more than 20,000 bbl of liquid mud.

The 200 Class DP-1 OSV retrofits will upgrade and stretch six vessels into 240 Class DP-2. Four of the upgraded vessels are for Petrobras in Brazil.

The 56-ft wide beams, the planned 40-ft mid-body extensions, and DP upgrades are expected to add 600 tons to the vessels’ 2,250 tons of current deadweight capacity and roughly double the vessels’ current liquid-mud capacity to approximately 8,000 bbl on each.

Hornbeck is in the process of finalizing negotiations with a domestic shipyard and expects a definitive contract in the near future. Deliveries will be in May, August, and December of 2013.

9/4/2012