The Viking Provider was added to the Viking Standby fleet on 13th May 1999 only 12 months after the order was placed for its construction at the German yard of Husumer Schiffswerft.

The ship is an IMT968 vessel designed by IMT Marine Consultants of Montrose. Co-incidentally Viking's office is in Montrose and the ship is registered in the port.

The Viking Provider has been taken on long term charter by Elf Exploration for use on the Elgin, Franklin and Shearwater Fields. It is the latest manifestation of the efforts being made by the oil companies to provide standby vessel support in a manner which is likely to conform the UK PFEER Regulation 17. Regulation 17 states that in the event that personnel end up in the sea due to a catastrophic event, a helicopter crash or falling overboard,  they must be provided with "a good prospect of recovery".

The ship is known in the publicity literature as a "multi-function support vessel" which means in the case of the Viking Provider that it can carry a limited amount of deck cargo and a quantity of fuel and potable water to the field when it carries out its crew change voyage. Additionally it can be used for interfield transfers.

Its two MAK engines develop a total of 4800 kW which gives it 63 tonnes of bollard pull, however it is not provided with either a winch or a roller. Instead it has a substantial staghorn in the middle of the deck aft and a towing hook fitted at the aft end of the accommodation. The staghorn is to enable it to tow lifeboats should such be necessary and the towing hook is to allow it to take a drifting vessel in tow by means of the latter's insurance wire.

The ship is 68 meters long 14.5 meters wide and has substantial freeboard. The covered in forecastle which results in an open deck space for use as a helicopter winching area gives it a muscular look which is enhanced by the blunt fendered bow, provided in case it is required to push anything.

Standby vessels which support more than one installation are frequently provided with daughter craft principally because there are usually a number of activities which take place on oil rigs known as "overside work", during which it is considered that the personnel engaged in the work are at risk of falling into the sea. Such work may only take place if there is provision on hand for immediate rescue and so two installations are so engaged at the same time the mother ship can stand by at one while a daughter craft stands by at the other. The Viking Provider has two daughter craft each deployed and recovered with motion compensated davits. These craft manufactured by Norsafe and designated Munin 950 were the subject of a separate article in the last edition of OSJ. They look as if they would be more at home in Monte Carlo than in the North Sea, however in addition to good looks they fulfil the essential requirement of providing the two crew with a comfortable environment in which they can remain for hours if necessary.

As well as the two daughter craft an additional conventional FRC is provided  and should the weather be sufficiently rough to prevent the launching of any of this equipment the ship has a Dacon Scoop on both the port and starboard sides. The Dacon Scoop is yet another item of equipment which is now commonly fitted to standby vessels, to allow overside work on board the installation even in poor weather conditions. The scoop can best be described as a semi-rigid net held out from the side of the ship by a hydraulic crane. The principle is that the ship should steam slowly towards the person or persons in the water so that they are eventually caught in the net. The crane then lifts the net up and the person is recovered on board.  This activity may be one where a smaller standby vessel might be an advantage since it would probably be a terrifying experience to have the Viking Provider bearing down on you in a five metre swell.

To assist with this particular activity and other slow speed manoeuvres the ship is provided with a Holland Roer variable speed azimuthing thruster which can be lowered from the hull on location. Such thrusters are becoming common on all types of support vessel but are particularly suitable where the vessel is required to proceed forward slowly on a precise course. The thruster can be controlled from either of the bridge wing control stations giving the Master the best possible chance of keeping persons in the water in sight while manoeuvring the ship so that they can be collected by the scoop.

In order to fulfil yet another standby vessel function, that of plotting approaching vessels to make sure that they are not going to run into any of Elf's platforms, it is provided with 3 ARPA radars, which form part of the comprehensive bridge console. This is positioned centrally in the forepart of the bridge, the windows being so arranged that from the seat at the console the watchkeeper has an excellent view forward and to port and starboard with no blind spots. This essential requirement was in the past more or less ignored by many naval architects but is now, to the relief of all watchkeepers, becoming accepted practice.