Bumi Armada yet to receive payments from Erin Petroleum

PETALING JAYA: Bumi Armada Bhd continues to engage with Erin Petroleum Nigeria Ltd to reach an amicable solution to the issue of outstanding payments due to its wholly owned subsidiaries.

Bumi Armada said despite numerous discussions with Erin Petroleum, payments due to Bumi Armada (Singapore) Pte Ltd (BASPL) and Armada Oyo Ltd for the provision of services by BASPL and Armada Oyo to Erin Petroleum under the operational and maintenance (O&M) services contract and the bareboat charterparty contract respectively, remain outstanding.

However, after meetings with the Department of Petroleum Resources of Nigeria and Erin Petroleum, BASPL and Armada Oyo have allowed the flow of produced oil into the FPSO (floating, production, storage, and offloading vessel) cargo tanks, Bumi Armada said in a stock exchange filing.

In June, BASPL and Armada Oyo each issued a notice of suspension to Erin Petroleum, a subsidiary of Erin Energy Corp, to suspend the provision of services by BASPL and Armada Oyo under the O&M contract and charterparty respectively due to longstanding delays in the charterparty payments due to Armada Oyo, as well as irregular payments in the O&M contract to BASPL. The total amount due was not disclosed.

On Feb 17, 2014, BASPL entered into the O&M contract with Oceanic Consultants Nigeria Ltd for the provision of O&M services for FPSO Armada Perdana deployed at the Oyo field offshore of Nigeria, while Armada Oyo entered into the charterparty contract with Oceanic for the charter of the FPSO by Armada Oyo to Oceanic.

Bumi Armada’s share price closed unchanged at 69 sen yesterday with 3.28 million shares traded.