Hallin founder back in subsea market with newbuild order

Tasik Toba

AUGUST 11, 2014 — Hallin Marine founder John Giddens is back in the subsea services industry as Managing Director of a new start up, Tasik Subsea.

Mr. Giddens is a former Royal Navy diver. After eight years with a major international diving contractor, he founded Hallin Marine from his Singapore home and after building it into a major subsea market player sold it to Houston-headquartered Superior Energy Services, Inc. (NYSE: SPN) in 2010 for more than £100 million (about $169 million). Now he and long time vessel collaborator Mike Meade, CEO of M3 Marine Group Pte Ltd. have set up Tasik Subsea.

The Singapore-based company last week announced the placing of a contract for a 105 m DP3 subsea services vessel, tentatively named Tasik Toba, with China’s Fujian Mawei Shipyard in China.

The vessel, whose design and specification have been carried out by Tasik Subsea, will have a 300 m rated saturation diving system, hangar facilities for two deep water ROVs, a 150 t SWL active heave compensated crane with 3,000 m working depth, and accommodations for 120 men.

The new ship is designed to meet the demands of the highest specifications in the industry, but be delivered at reasonable cost.

“We have spent considerable time and effort in the development of this vessel finding innovative ways to deliver maximum technical capabilities,” says Mr. Giddens. “It will meet and exceed the quality and safety expectations of the most demanding clients at a reasonable price to the end user. We believe we have managed to achieve that with a clever design team and innovative ideas without cutting corners.”

Fujian Mawei Shipyard was chosen to build the technically advanced vessel as a result of its track record in successfully building sophisticated DP3 vessels, the high quality of its workmanship and its history of on time delivery.