SINGAPORE - A unit of offshore and marine giant Seatrium has been ordered to pay US$108 million (S$147 million) to MHWirth, a wholly owned subsidiary of US drilling services provider HMH.
The ruling was made by a tribunal operating under the rules of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre.
It comprised US$101 million in vendor termination fees, and US$7 million for ancillary, and legal and arbitration proceeding fees.
“The tribunal has also awarded interests which will be calculated in due course,” Seatrium said in a bourse filing on April 18.
“The US$108 million is within the provision that the company has made in prior years, with the interests to be booked in financial year 2024.”
The arbitration proceedings, which commenced in December 2021, centred on four separate contracts for the supply of equipment.
MHWirth had contended that Jurong Shipyard was in breach of those contracts. Jurong Shipyard is a wholly owned subsidiary of Seatrium.
Norwegian oil services investment firm Akastor said on April 18 in a separate release that the contracts were originally entered into in 2012, and they were terminated by Jurong Shipyard in 2021 and 2022.
It added that while the contracts are held by MHWirth, it is Akastor that holds the “full financial interest” in them as they were not included in the transaction that formed HMH.
MHWirth merged with US energy company Baker Hughes’ subsea drilling systems arm in October 2021 to form HMH.
Shares of Seatrium closed 0.1 cent, or 1.3 per cent, higher at 7.7 cents on April 19.
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