The Netherlands: Stijn Folkers Appointed as Commercial Director of Blue Offshore

Blue Offshore announced today the appointment of Stijn Folkers to the role of Commercial Director. Folkers will be responsible for the management of Blue Offshore’s Commercial Departments.

Folkers has a strong background in the offshore industry. He served most recently as Manager of Contracts at Seaway Heavy Lifting, where he was responsible for negotiating heavy lift installation contracts with clients in Europe and the Far East. Moreover, Folkers helped guide an important expansion phase of the Seaway Heavy Lifting group, which resulted in delivery of their new 5000 mT Heavy Lift Vessel Oleg Strashnov on 31 March 2011.

Previously, Folkers served as Senior Legal Counsel at Allseas, one of the world’s major offshore pipelay and subsea construction companies. At Allseas Folkers was one of the key members in the team responsible for negotiating a number of major offshore projects, most notably the Gorgon & Jansz Project for Chevron Australia, the Dhirubhai 1 & 3 Gas field Development Project for Reliance Industries Limited in India and the Allseas-Technip joint-venture for the Petrobras Tupi Project in Brazil. Folkers’ will commence his role at Blue Offshore on May 1, 2011.

“Stijn Folkers combines excellent knowledge of contract standards in our industry with strong negotiation skills. On top of that he has proven track record in successfully guiding fast expanding businesses like that of Blue Offshore”, said Gerard Kroese, Director of Blue Offshore. “What we were missing was a strong, hands-on, commercial director with an aptitude for contractual and corporate matters. That gap has been filled now and we are very content with it”.

Demand for offshore cable installation and transport services is very high at the moment and is increasing with the boom in offshore wind farm developments. “Blue Offshore has the know-how and capability to serve the market in such demand”, Folkers says. “The challenge for this service company now is to efficiently provide its solutions on a large scale to the marketplace and boost further confidence, also from the largest operators.” Blue Offshore has recently been awarded the lease contract for a subsea cable installation system from Norddeutsche Seekabelwerke GmbH (NSW) and is currently tendering for multiple projects in Europe and the Middle East.

(blueoffshore)

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Source: blueoffshore, April 27, 2011