Maersk Supply Service has reconfirmed its commitment to Fleet Xpress, in a three-year contract extension which also sees one of the world’s largest offshore support vessel operators among the first companies to sign up to Inmarsat’s new dedicated bandwidth service for charterers.

Deployed off Europe, the Americas, West Africa, South East Asia and Australia, 40 Maersk Supply Service vessels include some of the most modern anchor handlers, subsea support vessels and platform supply vessels in the offshore services industry, with 10 built within the last three years. Maersk Supply Service is also a strong advocate for digital solutions that use high-quality data to optimise vessel operations, recently adopting a new energy advisory system in support of an initial target to reduce fuel consumption by 5% by 2020.

Eric Griffin, VP Offshore Energy, Inmarsat Maritime

“We are delighted that Maersk Supply Service has committed to Fleet Xpress to enable its digitalisation strategy and in particular that the company will use our new dedicated bandwidth service to provide its charterers with their own connection through the same terminal and hardware on the vessel,” said Eric Griffin, VP of Offshore Energy at Inmarsat Maritime.

The new Charterer plans on Fleet Xpress have been designed specifically for Offshore Supply vessel operators to meet the increasing connectivity requirements of third-party charterers and to run across dedicated bandwidth that does not interrupt the vessel’s primary bandwidth.

Maersk Supply Service Chief Information Officer, Thomas Stampe said: “IT solutions that offer us and our customers greater control and flexibility over data management are key to any initiatives that seek to achieve smarter and more agile vessel performance.”

Since its launch in March 2016, Fleet Xpress has been installed onboard around 7,000 ships, establishing itself as the market-leading maritime broadband connectivity option in the maritime industry. A report published in 2018 by market analyst Euroconsult indicated that Fleet Xpress was the fastest growing maritime VSAT service.