Neptune Energy awards £10m vessel contract to Aberdeen's Sentinel Marine

Neptune Energy has awarded a £10 million vessel services contract to Aberdeen-based Sentinel Marine.

The three-year vessel services contract will see Sentinel continue to provide offshore support for Neptune’s Cygnus gas field in the UK southern North Sea. The agreement was awarded following a competitive tendering process.

The multi-role, emergency response and rescue vessel, Cygnus Sentinel, will also support an upcoming drilling campaign on the Cygnus field.

Neptune said the vessel’s “fuel-efficient, multi-role specification” enabled it to provide both emergency response and platform supply services, thereby reducing costs and CO2 emissions, and maximising efficiency.

The contract includes two one-year extensions.

Neptune Energy’s UK country director, Alan Muirhead, said: “The [vessel] has an essential role in supporting safe operations at Cygnus. Sentinel Marine has been supporting operations at Cygnus since 2014 and we are pleased to continue working together to maintain safe and efficient operations.”

Neptune Energy, which was founded by former Centrica boss Sam Laidlaw, is a global exploration and production company with operations across Europe, North Africa and Asia Pacific. It is backed by CIC and funds advised by Carlyle Group and CVC Capital Partners.

In May, the firm said it planned to spend more than $1 billion (£810 million) over the next five years helping to secure energy supplies for the UK.

The multi-role, emergency response and rescue vessel, Cygnus Sentinel, will also support an upcoming drilling campaign on the Cygnus field.

The group, which currently operates around 11 per cent of the UK’s gas supply from fields in the UK Southern North Sea and the Norwegian North Sea, said its investment would also accelerate the transition to net zero.