ector Offshore were
once a major player in the standby vessel
business, but those involved sold up and
retired, until the arrival of the Jigsaw Project
for BP. They had the idea of supporting the
helicopter part of the operation with large
supply vessels which would carry smaller vessels
which would be launched, pick up the people in
the water and then return to the supply/standby
vessel. The trick was that if the small craft
could not be recovered to the mother ship it
would be able to make its way to the shore -
from the middle of the North Sea. BP had
promised that who-ever came up with a good idea
for supporting Jigsaw would be able to carry on
working for them. Hence the revival of Vector,
managing the four very large ships, and eight
small craft which now make up the marine part of
Jigsaw.
There is much written about
Jigsaw elsewhere on this site.
News items about this company
include a misfortune in Aberdeen when one of the ships
demolished one or two small fishing vessels during a move
between berths. Well it happens, and also the fitting of DP
II systems to all the vessels. I don't know whether the
events are connected. (May 2012)
On September 1st 2013 the
contract for the management of these ships was awarded to
Bibby Offshore and so it may be that Vector have retired
from the fray. Also it has been in the news that BP have
order at least two platform ships which will also be managed
by this organisation. In view of the transient nature of the
management of this fleet I have decided to list them under
BP, who are after all the owners. The ship information has
been improved.
Since this page was last
updated BP have discarded the Jigsaw project and the four
ships have been converted into very large platform ships and
the ARCs put up for sale. In addition one or two new
platform ships to be employed by BP have emerged during 2014 and one has
been photographed in Malta. These ships are the NS Elida and
the NS Iona. According to their classification society they
are owned by BP Shipping and managed Bibby, although they do
not appear on either of those company's websites.
Updated 22nd October 2014.
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