Mas movimiento en Maersk

Si hace unos días os comentaba la intención de Maersk de vender su flota de LNGs, ahora parece que la división de FPSOs también tiene los días contados (con Teekay de nuevo por el medio de ambas ventas...)

MAERSK EYE FPSO EXIT
Industry sources say Danish giant may be looking to offload its floating production arm after recent LNG sale talk.

AP Moller Maersk is said to be considering the sale of its floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) business.

"Maersk has been discreetly tapping the market for some months about a possible sale of its FPSO business," TradeWinds' sister publication Upstream said quoting an unnamed source.

Talk of its FPSO business being no longer "core for Maersk" comes barely days after the Danish giant said it may sell its LNG shipping arm.

The Danish company said it will go "to the market to find a potential buyer for Maersk LNG" because it wants to "reallocate resources" to other parts of the group.

Quoting a rival FPSO contractor the newspaper said "informal discussions have been held" between Maersk and potential buyers.

"Maersk has been approached by interests that have been keen to look either at individual units in their fleet or the entire division," Upstream reported.

Together, the LNG and FPSO arms made a profit of only $12m in the first quarter of 2011 and generated a rate of return of 1.8%, far below that of Maersk's upstream and shipping businesses.

Late last year Maersk brought in Stig Hoffmeyer as the new chief executive at its LNG and FPSO operations in a bid to turn things around.

When appointed in September last year, Hoffmeyer, an old hand at turning around companies' fortunes, did not pull his punches.

"Seen from a newcomer's view, this industry has an attractive potential. However, profitability has so far not yet been at a satisfactory level." Ironically, Hoffmeyer, speaking at a recent conference in Singapore, said that global demand for FPSOs was set to double this decade.

"I have never been in an industry before where the future outlook is so bright," he said.

BW Offshore is considered by several sources as a potential buyer, but Teekay's offshore arm has just announced a major fund raising initiative. Maersk FPSOs' fleet comprises the Ngujima-Yin unit in Australia, the Nkossa II gas floater, the Maersk Curlew FPSO and the part-owned North Sea producer.

Its fifth unit, Maersk Peregrino, has just begun operations off Brazil on Statoil's Peregrino field. In addition, it also operates the Alvheim FPSO off Norway.

The FPSO market is already dominated by three players, SBM Offshore, Modec and BW Offshore, who between them control around 44% of the market.
Fuente: Tradewinds