Happy Easter! As the Christian faithful reflect on the miracle of the resurrection, we look at some of the unlikely comebacks in the offshore industry, a sector as well known for its betrayals and injustices as the Holy Week story, but without the public crucifixion.
The disciple Judas Iscariot famously betrayed Jesus to the chief priests for thirty pieces of silver. Now, many offshore seafarers feel that they would be lucky to get such a sum, and that their employers have betrayed them over the last decade, cutting costs and driving salaries down.
Offshore wages are a major bone of contention, with many seafarers pointing out that day rates for both officers and ratings have stayed stagnant for the best part of a decade, despite high inflation over the period. Eurozone inflation has been a cumulative 26 per cent from 2015 to 2025, and cumulative inflation in the UK over the same period has been whopping 40 per cent, as per the Bank of England. So, if you made three hundred pounds a day in 2015, you needed to make four hundred and twenty pounds a day in 2025 to have the same purchasing power.
This clearly has not happened, though. Polish roustabout and able-bodied seaman Przemyslaw Wietrzynski reflected popular frustration with the situation when he wrote on in a widely liked social media post:
“Something is seriously wrong in offshore recruitment right now. [Employers] keep increasing certification requirements, yet you’re not able to provide stable employment.
"Costs on the worker’s side:
• BOSIET – around €1,500 (US$1,700)
• HLO (every 2 years) – around €1,800 (US$2,100)
• Banksman (every 2 years) – around €1,500
"And on top of that, many additional specialised courses are often required depending on the role. That’s thousands of euros invested, often with no guarantee of getting a job. At the same time, you offer rates of around €250 (US$290) per day. After taxes and spreading that income over time spent at home between rotations, the real earnings look very different.
"This industry demands responsibility, skills, and readiness to work in tough conditions. That’s fair.
"But there should also be fairness on the other side — in pay, in stability, and in real opportunities. Right now, that balance is missing. It’s time for a fair balance.
“My wife does lash extensions and makes more money per hour than I do, while I work and risk my life on a high-spec oil rig. How crazy is that? Why are we so undervalued?”
Being of a nautical bent, it took me a few moments to realise his wife was doing eye lash extensions, not cargo lashing. However, the comments were flooded with supportive remarks, including this one from a former senior manager in safety with several oil majors:
“Offshore work used to be attractive because you could make significantly more money than doing the same job onshore, so it was worth the risk and the family life sacrifices; however, that is often not the case anymore.”
And there were also comments from Latin American crew that the situation internationally was worse than in Europe. Others reflected that strong unions in Australia have prevented the same slide to the bottom and wage stagnation in Oz.
It’s a good question as to why this has happened, and a lot of the anger driving criticism of the Nautical Institute for charges for dynamic positioning (DP) continuous professional development for DP officers comes from the same frustration felt by seafarers, who face higher costs for extra training and certification, and lower real wages.
Definitely, the industry depression from 2015 to 2021 did nothing to help the situation. The number of floating rigs working in 2026 is still much lower than it was in 2014, hundreds of offshore vessels were laid up for many years, many were scrapped and newbuilding orders remain low. Many storied names went bust, or were acquired. During this period of losses and bankruptcies, employers could reduce wages in the knowledge that there was a surplus of trained and experienced offshore crew, and many companies had to as they faced extreme financial pressure from their lenders.
The growth of Tidewater has much to do with the stagnation of wages, in my opinion, as the offshore support vessel market leader has consistently sought to drag down the wages in the fleets of those companies it acquired, including Swire Pacific Offshore and Solstad. This has been a conscious policy, to the lower wage levels in Europe and internationally on vessels acquired, down to the same levels “enjoyed” by Tidewater crews – all done whilst paying the company’s CEO and “leadership team” millions and millions of dollars for their alleged business acumen, as we have covered many times.
As we saw with scrapping vessels in the industry downturn and driving up day rates in the upturn, the industry leader has a major influence on the well-being and norms of the entire industry. Tidewater sets the trend and leads the industry. It could and should exercise a positive lead to raise crew wages and invest in the future of the industry.
If we want a healthy offshore industry with a motivated, skilled and dynamic workforce fit for the future, then charterers should also be demanding that ship owners enforce better terms, and Tidewater as the industry leader should be pushing standards and wages upwards. Otherwise, the future will be short-term profits for shareholders and executives, at the expense of the industry as a whole in the medium and longer term.
Do I think that will happen? I would sooner expect to see the Easter Bunny bounding around with a basket of eggs in real life, or Tidewater management taking a pay cut in solidarity with their seafarers, or charterers offering to pay a premium for shipowners who pay their crews better than average.
In the Gospels, Jesus was tried in Jerusalem before Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect of Judea. Pilate initially found no fault in Jesus, but was pressured by the Jewish authorities to condemn him to death. The Roman is said to have washed his hands in front of the baying crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. It is your responsibility!”
Whilst obviously not on that level of life or death importance, Upstream has reported that TotalEnergies is awaiting a judgment on whether it can proceed with exploration drilling offshore in South Africa's Orange basin south of its important Venus discovery in Namibia. Hearings finished last month and this is the latest in a series of court actions and challenges brought by local environmental groups, who claim that they are opposed to fossil fuel operations but seem quite happy that the country generates 80 per cent of electricity from coal, the filthiest fossil fuel.
Rather than blockading state-owned electricity monopoly Eskom’s ageing and highly polluting coal-fired power stations, the activists prefer to block efforts to reduce emissions and domestic self-sufficiency through domestic gas exploration and production. Renewable energy contributed just eight per cent to the country’s grid in 2025, while nuclear provided four per cent and power imports and gas each supplied three per cent, as per Energise.
This hostility to gas, despite gas having half the emissions as coal when burnt for power, has resulted in TotalEnergies walking away from the two large offshore gas discoveries it had made in South African Blocks 11B/12B in 2013. In 2024, the company handed back the licence containing the Brulpadda and Luiperd discoveries, saying that monetising these discoveries into commercial developments was simply too challenging.
Three protest groups, being Green Connection, Natural Justice and Aukotowa Primary Fishing Co-Operative, have now argued the approval process for TotalEnergies' offshore drilling permit in the Orange Basin was, “unlawful, irrational and inconsistent with constitutional, environmental and climate obligations,” as per Iain Esau.
Quite how burning coal benefits the wider population of South Africa is not clear, given the massive pollution from Eksom’s coal-fired plants. Coal-powered plants are major causes of air pollution in the country, especially in the Mpumalanga province near Johannesburg. IQAir found that South Africa is the continent’s largest emitter of sulphur dioxide and that it is the 12th biggest greenhouse gas polluter in the world. Additionally, there were six fatalities in the South African coal sector in 2024, compared to seven in 2023, according to the most recent official statistics.
This opposition to oil and gas production at home is notwithstanding the fact that South Africa imports over 175,00 barrels of oil with a market value of over US$6 billion and over US$400 million of gas from Mozambique in 2024.
One of the features of the Crucifixion is that everything went dark that day, according to the Gospels. If South Africa remains dependent on oil imports and persists in blocking domestic offshore exploration, we should not be surprised if similar black-outs, unrelated to the death of the Saviour, occur there.
The Bible recounts how, on Easter morning, some women went to Jesus’ tomb and were startled to find the stone rolled away from the entrance, but when they entered, they did not find Christ’s body.
The Strait of Hormuz has become a rather like a sealed tomb for ships at present, with Iranian drones and missiles preventing ships from entering or leaving the Persian Gulf, save for a few from nations friendly to Tehran.
Whilst we wait for an improbable Easter miracle to see the trapped ships moving again and the strait re-opened, we have found some other consequences from the conflict.
Less than a year ago the emirates were exultant that the world’s richest and wiliest tanker owner, the most famous Cypriot of Norwegian descent, and owner of Frontline Tankers, John Fredriksen, had relocated both his own residence and a significant element of his family investment businesses from London to the UAE.
Mr Fredriksen cited the UK Government’s decision to scrap its long-standing and generous “non-dom” tax regime as the primary reason for his move. He closed the London headquarters of Seatankers Management in Sloane Square, and put his ten-bedroom mansion in the capital, The Old Rectory, up for sale, for a price believed to be in excess for US$250 million. He had acquired the property in Chelsea from Theodore Angelopoulos of Greek tanker group Metrostar in 2004.
The Gulf News declared last year that, “his shift to the UAE marks a symbolic moment in the broader outflow of global wealth from Britain,” and noted that, “Fredriksen’s departure underscores the UAE’s growing appeal as a haven for the wealthy.”
"It’s starting to remind me more and more of Norway," Mr Fredriksen said when he left the UK for Dubai, as per The Standard newspaper. "Britain has gone to hell, like Norway."
We have been unable to discover exactly where Mr Fredriksen is today, but it seems that he is not in the UAE anymore, based on conversations with Norwegian sources. Wherever he is, we hope the tanker magnate is safe. Whilst he owns Frontline, one presumes he did not in fact expect to find himself on the frontline of an actual war.
Britain and Norway may be hell, but at least they are not subject to continuing Iranian drone and missile strikes, eh? However, I am sure both states will take him back as a (tax) resident in the spirit of Easter forgiveness.
The strangest line in Cadeler’s 2025 executive pay report was that, apparently like Mr Fredriksen, Cadeler's CEO and CFO had somehow relocated in 2025, even though the Danish wind turbine installer appears to have remained firmly headquartered in Copenhagen.
Mikkel Gleerup, CEO, and Peter Brogaard Hansen, CFO, each received €333,029 (US$384,000) as “relocation bonuses” as per page seven of the report.
Quite why exactly this was paid is not clear, as the company’s own website confirm that, “Cadeler’s headquarters is located in the heart of Copenhagen,” a city in which it has always been based.
Pontius Pilate is supposed to have said, “What I have written, I have written,” but one might expect a greater level of detail in a twenty-first century remuneration report.
Perhaps the remuneration committee has washed its hands of explaining why Cadeler’s executives receive such apparently random and seemingly unnecessary payouts of hundreds of thousands apiece?
Looking forward to an explanation from their PR team. Behold the bonus, to paraphrase Pilate, again.
If Mr Fredriksen is likely to have reversed his move for his own safety, and Cadeler executives do not appear to have relocated at all, state owned shipping company ADNOC Logistics and Services (ADNOC L&S), the largest offshore vessel operator in Abu Dhabi, faces a different problem. It needs to move ships, but it cannot.
Last month, ADNOC L&S received an early delivery of a 175,000-cubic-metre LNG carrier constructed by Jiangnan Shipyard in China. Araba is the fifth vessel in a series of six and follows on from the delivery of sister vessel Al Sadaf in December, as we reported.
Just two problems. Arada is in China and cannot access the LNG trains it was built to serve in Abu Dhabi. Secondly, even if it could transit the Strait of Hormuz, Bloomberg has reported that the UAE’s only operating LNG production plant at Das Island off Abu Dhabi, “is operating at very low levels due to the inability to export via the Strait of Hormuz... The six-million-ton-a-year facility hasn’t been fully halted to allow for a quick restart whenever the strait reopens.”
This follows on from QatarEnergies’ decision to shut-in its 12 working LNG trains in Ras Laffan, when it ran out of storage and another two trains were damaged by Iranian attacks, along with the Pearl gas-to-liquids plant.
It is not just LNG carriers where ADNOC L&S finds its vessels on the wrong side of the strait. The company also reported the successful launch of ADNOC’s largest MPSV DP2 vessel, ADNOC M03, in China last month. The vessel is designed to support critical operations offshore Abu Dhabi, including subsea installation and inspection, ROV deployment, dive support, and offshore construction logistics assisted by a 100-tonne subsea crane, as per social media posts.
Until the strait reopens, ADNOC M03 will not be able to fulfil the role for which it was purchased by its Emirati owner.
On Easter Sunday, April 5, ADNOC Gas reported that an incident occurred at its Habshan gas processing complex two days earlier:
“[It] caused damage to certain facilities. The incident occurred due to falling debris following the successful interception by air defence systems in the Habshan area. Tragically, one contractor, an Egyptian national, lost his life during the evacuation from the site. Four other contractors sustained minor injuries in the same accident and have been released from hospital.”
In 2024, through its joint venture with the Wanhua Chemical Group, Adnoc L&S signed a newbuild contract for the construction of nine very large ethane carriers (VLECs), priced at approximately US$1.4 billion and the contract for two very large ammonia carriers (VLACs) is priced at approximately US$250 million, with the option for another two VLACs at the same price.
The new vessels will be among the world’s largest ethane and ammonia carriers and will run on energy-efficient dual fuel engines, the company said. ADNOC L&S reported that the VLECs will be deployed on 20-year time charter contracts, generating revenue of US$4 billion through 180 years of contract coverage.
It remains to be seen how the shutting of the Strait of Hormuz will impact the company’s shipping business, which made a profit of US$863 million for full year 2025, up 14 per cent from 2024. ADNOC L&S claimed in its results presentation to have US$25 billion of long-term contracted revenue for its vessels.
Unless the metaphorical rock blocking the Strait of Hormuz can be rolled back soon, will its parent company be forced to declare force majeure on some of those contracts with its own subsidiary?
The gulf oil and gas industry needs a cessation of hostilities and the quick reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to enable its resurrection. At the moment, that seems a miraculous and uncertain possibility, but one for which billions of oil and gas, fertiliser, and chemicals consumers are praying.
Background reading
Bret Devereaux’ essay on the lack of strategy behind the American and Israeli attack on Iran is insightful. He begins by pointing out the following:
“Iran is more than twice as large as Texas, with roughly three times the population. More relevantly for us, Iran is 3.5 times larger than Iraq and roughly twice the population. That’s a handy comparison because we know what it took to invade and then hold Iraq: coalition forces peaked at half a million deployed personnel during the invasion.”
For the archaeology of the events of Jesus’ crucifixion, NatGeo has this helpful primer on the events and this graphic on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.