Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co. (ZPMC) informed that it will take legal actions to protect its interest in the case of termination of shipbuilding contract by Petrofac.

Earlier this month Petrofac terminated the contract for building of JSD 6000, deepwater multi-purpose offshore vessel.

“ZPMC will actively take all legal measures to defend its legitimate rights and interests, and will pursue the liability borne by Petrofac,” the company said in a statement.

The JSD 6000 was planed as a customised ULSTEIN SOC 5000, developed by Dutch design company Ulstein Sea of Solutions.

The vessel, according to its design, would integrated the J-Lay, S-Lay and derrick functions suitable to serve deepwater and SURF markets.

The reason for termination of the contract, according to Petrofac, was due to issues with ZPMC’s performance in respect of the construction of the proprietary design Petrofac JSD 6000.

Regarding this, ZPMC said: “Analysts believe that the true reason of more and more contract termination arising is mainly caused by low oil and gas price which lead to offshore global market downturn.”