Por Onde Anda? Navvik Leader

After almost 15 years connected to Brazil’s offshore market, the former Maersk Leader is sitting at anchor in Rio de Janeiro under a new name and a new owner.

Now Navvik Leader, the AHTS has completed another Petrobras cycle and is currently waiting in Rio. Latest public AIS data reviewed by One Energy News still showed the vessel anchored on August 30, retaining its Danish flag, MMSI 220577000 and original IMO 9425710.

Its current position, however, tells only part of the story.

Few vessels provide such a clear view of how the high-capacity AHTS market has changed over the past decade and a half.

Delivered in July 2009 by Volkswerft Stralsund in Germany, Maersk Leader was the first of six AHTSs built in the series for Maersk Supply Service.

The 90.3-metre DP2 vessel was designed for heavy anchor handling and towing, with 259.3 tonnes of bollard pull, 810 m² of deck area and a 500-tonne double-drum anchor handling and towing winch.

Its early career included major towing work in the North Sea. In 2010, Maersk Leader was one of four towing vessels involved in moving the Gjøa production platform from western Norway to the Gjøa field.

Brazil soon became much more important to the vessel.

WSB-One records a Shell fixture beginning in September 2011 at approximately US$49,500 per day. Market records show the Leader still working for Shell in Brazil in August 2012, shortly before leaving the country for modifications ahead of its next assignment.

That next contract was much larger.

In 2012, Petrobras awarded four-year contracts to Maersk Leader, Maersk Lancer and Maersk Launcher for ultra-deepwater anchor handling operations using conventional and torpedo anchors.

The three-vessel package was valued at approximately US$285 million, while WSB-One records the Leader at US$65,940 per day.

That rate provides an important reference for what happened to the AHTS market afterwards.

Following the offshore downturn, the Leader returned to term employment in Brazil in March 2017 under a one-year fixture with Modec. WSB-One records the dayrate at US$25,000.

The same vessel that had earned almost US$66,000 per day during the previous Petrobras cycle was now working for less than half that level.

Years later, the market began moving in the other direction.

In March 2023, Maersk Supply Service announced that Petrobras had contracted Maersk Leader, Maersk Launcher and Maersk Lancer for another three-year period covering anchor handling activities and drilling-rig movements.

WSB-One records the Leader at US$41,000 per day under the new Petrobras fixture, followed by a short extension into March 2026.

The rate represented a clear recovery from the 2017 level, although it remained well below the vessel’s previous Petrobras fixture.

By then, the ownership behind the fleet was also changing.

In 2023, A.P. Moller-Maersk completed the divestment of Maersk Supply Service to A.P. Moller Holding, marking the final step in Maersk’s exit from its energy-related businesses.

A year later, DOF acquired Maersk Supply Service globally. The Brazilian operation, however, was specifically excluded from the transaction and continued independently.

That separation eventually became permanent.

In March 2026, a consortium led by ASM Texas Corp. and FV Star One Limited agreed to acquire Maersk Supply Service Brazil. The transaction was completed in May, and the operation began trading as Navvik.

Maersk Leader became Navvik Leader.

The ownership and name changed. The vessel did not.

It remains one of the larger conventional anchor handlers in the Brazilian market, with the same heavy anchor handling capabilities that brought it to the country more than a decade ago.

And this is where the story returns to the present.

The Petrobras contract awarded in 2023 has now run its course, and Navvik Leader is waiting in Rio de Janeiro between assignments.

Its employment history puts that position into perspective.

US$49,500 per day with Shell at the beginning of its Brazilian story. US$65,940 with Petrobras during the previous offshore boom. US$25,000 with Modec after the downturn. US$41,000 when Petrobras brought the L-class trio back in 2023.

Same vessel. Four fixtures. Very different markets.

The Maersk name has disappeared from Brazil, but the Leader remains here, 17 years after delivery and under a new ownership structure.

For now, it is waiting.

Stay tuned. This is one we will be watching closely.