Gulf Marine Services sees 'clear signs' of oil market recovery

(ShareCast News) - Gulf Marine Services has won a new long-term contract award for one of its vessels to support oil drilling activities for a national oil company and said this demonstrated the "clear signs of recovery" in the market.The fully listed company said the new three-year charter for one of its mid-sized vessels was scheduled to begin in the coming weeks, supporting "well intervention activities" for a state oil company in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region with which the company has been contracted before.After reporting five other contracts since the start of November and seeing an increase in tender opportunities in the Middle East chief executive Duncan Anderson said the strategy of providing flexible and cost-effective services was pivotal to winning the contract. "The new charter, which together with other recent contract wins has increased our total backlog by approximately two-thirds since 1 November 2016, demonstrates that the market is showing clear signs of recovery," he said."This contract win has also further strengthened our business relationship with a strategic NOC client and improved our current geographic diversity. We are delighted our client has again recognised the value our modern four-legged vessels bring to intensive well intervention campaigns across multiple locations."