Norwegian offshore vessel operator Havila Shipping has secured another one-year extension with Equinor for the rescue and recovery vessel Havila Troll.

The latest option will keep the 2003-built ship with the Norwegian energy major until November 2027. Financial terms of the extension have not been disclosed.

Two further one-year options remain, potentially extending the vessel's employment through to November 2029.

The Havila Troll is a 92-metre UT 527-design vessel providing emergency response, oil-spill preparedness, firefighting and rescue services at offshore installations. The UT design series, developed by Rolls-Royce Marine and now part of Kongsberg Maritime's portfolio following the 2019 acquisition of Rolls-Royce's commercial marine business, is among the most widely used offshore vessel designs in the industry. Vessels of this type stand by offshore installations, ready to evacuate personnel and respond to incidents such as fires and oil spills. Such standby capacity is a regulatory requirement for offshore installations on the Norwegian continental shelf, where Equinor is the largest operator, a framework that supports steady, compliance-driven demand for this specialist vessel segment.

Equinor, headquartered in Stavanger, is Norway's largest energy company and remains majority-owned by the Norwegian state. The company was known as Statoil before adopting the Equinor name in 2018.

Splash reported in September 2025 that Equinor had extended the vessel's contract until November 2026.

Fosnavåg-based Havila, which is listed on the Oslo stock exchange, currently operates 12 vessels, comprising eight platform suppliers, three subsea vessels and one rescue and recovery vessel. Four of the ships are operated for external owners. Multi-year charters with energy majors such as Equinor are a key source of revenue visibility for offshore vessel owners, a sector that spent much of the past decade working through overcapacity following the oil-market downturn that began in 2014.

Source: Splash247