Press Release

Gulf Marine Services (LSE:GMS), the leading provider of advanced self-propelled self-elevating support vessels (SESV) serving the offshore oil, gas and renewable energy sectors, is pleased to confirm a major new contract award for one of its Large Class vessels.

The vessel will commence a four-year charter (two years firm with two 12-month options) at the beginning of Q2 2015 and will be supporting well service and maintenance work in the Dutch sector of the North Sea. The day rate is in line with that previously indicated for the region.

The Group’s current backlog (comprising firm and extension options) is now $547 million.

Duncan Anderson, Chief Executive Officer of GMS, said:
“We are very pleased to have secured this long-term contract and look forward to working with our client to support their operations in the North Sea. The market in Europe for our flexible assets continues to be strong and we are seeing an increasing demand for our sophisticated SESVs for shallow water brownfield maintenance to extend asset life and production, well intervention and enhanced recovery. Our low cost intervention solution is being embraced by a wider range of oil and gas clients as the GMS fleet expands.”

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Notes to Editors:
Gulf Marine Services PLC, a company listed on the London Stock Exchange, was founded in Abu Dhabi in 1977 and has become one of the largest providers of self-propelled self-elevating support vessels (SESV) in the world. The fleet serves the oil, gas and renewable energy industries from its offices in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. GMS is working worldwide, with its assets capable of serving clients’ requirements in the Middle East, South East Asia, West Africa and Europe.

The enhanced Small Class vessel Pepper is expected to be delivered to GMS in Q1 2015 on a finance lease and it is GMS’ intention to purchase Pepper in 2016 for $51 million.

GMS has an ongoing new build programme which will increase the fleet size by 66% from nine to 15 vessels during the period 2014 to the end of 2016, in response to continued strong customer demand and an anticipated growing market in the foreseeable future.

The Group’s SESV fleet, currently comprising ten vessels, is technically advanced and amongst the youngest in the industry, with an average age of eight years.

The SESVs are four-legged vessels that move independently, with no requirement for anchor handling or tug support. They have a large deck space, crane capacity and accommodation facilities that can be adapted to the requirements of the Group’s clients.

These vessels support GMS’ clients in a broad range of offshore oil and gas platform refurbishment and maintenance activities, well intervention work and offshore wind turbine maintenance work (which are Opex-led activities) and offshore oil and gas platform installation and offshore wind turbine installation (which are Capex-led activities).

The fleet is categorised by size into Large Class vessels (operating in water depth of up to 80m, with crane capacity of up to 400 tonnes and accommodation for up to 300 people) and Small Class vessels (operating in water depth of up to 45m, with crane capacity of up to 45 tonnes and accommodation for up to 300 people). A third class, the Mid-Size Class vessels (operating in water depth up to 55m, with crane capacity of up to 150 tonnes and accommodation for up to 300 people) will be added to the fleet in 2015.

Demand for GMS’ vessels is predominantly driven by their premium capabilities as well as market growth underpinned by the need to maintain ageing oil and gas infrastructure and increasing use of enhanced oil recovery techniques to offset declining production profiles.

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