Arias, Fábrega & Fábrega acted as special Panamanian counsel to Shearwater GeoServices Holdings AS, in the acquisition process of the seismic ships business of Schlumberger Oilfield Holdings Limited. The Norwegian company within the group, Gecoship AS, owns and operates 6 large scale Panamanian registered vessels whose shares would be transferred to Shearwater GeoServices Holdings AS.

Besides conducting the complete due diligence process of the Panamanian registered vessels inherent to a vessel merger and acquisition transaction, ARIFA legal team exceptional expertise and high technical understanding of the industry led to a more thorough research of the regulatory documentation and to advise the client in respect to relevant risks and issues regarding documentations relevant to seismic vessels.

ARIFA expertise in matters of regulation and details regarding the requirements for navigation, including verifications in the different units of the Panamanian Maritime Authority, such as to locate and update documents, allow us to do a more exhaustive job, and to go beyond what was expected, for the client's comfort in the indirect acquisition of the ships.

ARIFA is currently assisting the owners in the process of financing through DNB Bank ASA and Sparebank 1 SR-Bank ASA as mandated lead arrangers, having the former as mortgagee (i.e. agent and security agent) involving a loan of up to US$325,500,000.