Seamec chases Swiber for $16.9m in unpaid bills

Vol 19, PW 26 (08 Sep 16) Exploration & Production

Hal Offshore-promoted Seamec is the latest in a line of creditors to chase near-bankrupt EPC contractor Swiber for unpaid bills.

On August 22, Seamec president corporate affairs SN Mohanty wrote to the BSE telling it that Seamec has filed a case against Swiber Offshore Construction in a Singapore court and a parallel case against Swiber Offshore India in the Bombay High Court. Seamec claims it is owed Rs26cr ($3.9m) by Swiber Offshore Construction and Rs89cr ($13m) by Swiber Offshore India for the use of vessels Seamec-II and Seamec-III over the last working season (2015) on three ONGC contracts offshore Mumbai which Swiber has yet to complete: the C-26 pipeline project; the Daman field development; and the Pipeline Replacement Project-IV (PRP-IV).

At its hearing on August 19, 2016 the Bombay High Court ordered ONGC to refrain from making payment to Swiber Offshore India without court permission. A further hearing was originally scheduled for August 25 but this report learns ONGC has asked for more time to resolve matters with Swiber and the next hearing was pushed back to September 1 and then to September 8.

When asked if he feels there is a chance of recovering the money from Swiber, a source close to Seamec said: "Swiber isn't in a good financial position. I doubt it will pay."

Swiber Holdings, the parent company of Swiber Group, is under judicial management by the Singapore court which has appointed KPMG as judicial managers. Swiber Offshore Construction is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Swiber Holdings while Swiber Offshore India is an associate company. Seamec president corporate affairs Mohanty's letter to the BSE specifies that Swiber Holdings, "had filed a winding up petition before Singapore Court and subsequently withdrew the same (sic)." Swiber avoided liquidation on July 29 when its lawyers applied for judicial management or a court-approved rescue plan. This followed its failure to sell $200m of preferential shares to London-based AMTC after which it had to take out $146m in bridge loans from financial services company DBS. At the $308m Daman project, Swiber completed 65% of the work by end-June and ONGC has paid 51% of the contract value; for the C-26 pipeline job 90% of the work has been completed; at PRP-IV 61% is completed.

Seamec chases Swiber for $16.9m in unpaid bills

Next

Back

Related

Most Read