Work Boat World and Ausmarine editorial – June 2010
With the rapid recent build up in the global fleet of offshore service vessels some commentators have wisely warned of an impending glut.
Those warnings have a solid base in both experience and fact. Since it really started to develop in the mid 1960s, the offshore service vessel market has experienced some dramatic booms and busts. The early '70s, '80s, '90s and noughties all provided some very scary experiences for those invested in the sector.
I well remember the rows of brand new 55-metre PSVs lined up in the bayous west of New Orleans. Built on spec, they had no hope of being sold in 1983/4.
An opportunity missed was the offer of an AHTS for US$100,000 about the same time. The eventual buyer converted it to a fishing boat and sold the winch for two and a half times the price of the whole vessel!
Those opportunities come and go with the business cycle. As they say, "the rich man buys the fool's mistake."
Three decades ago, of course, the alternatives to offshore oil and gas exploration and development were pretty much limited to fishing and some fairly restricted cargo/carrying. Nowadays, however, there are additional opportunities.
The growth of the windfarm construction and service sector has been well described in this magazine in recent years. Similarly, some OSVs, both platform supply and crew/supply have found roles in patrol, rescue, salvage and disaster relief activities.
There is little doubt that the opportunities in all these fields of activities will continue to expand. Many currently configured OSVs of virtually every kind can be readily converted to such alternative uses.
Two other sectors also promise huge potential markets for owners and operators of most kinds of OSVs. They, are offshore mariculture and offshore mining.
Both sectors have been largely neglected until recently because it has been easier and more economical to conduct such activities on or near the land. That situation is rapidly changing for both sectors.
Offshore mariculture, for example, will inevitably become much more important. The world needs protein. It needs a fair share of that protein to be in the form of seafood for reasons of healthy diet, variety and the land environment.
However, in their wisdom (But, in my view, as a result of a conspiracy with the global extreme green movement), most governments of developed nations have emasculated their fishing industries. They have done much the same – mostly for better reasons – to their inshore, coastal and land based aquaculture counterparts.
So, where do we obtain our seafood? If inshore, coastal and land based aquaculture is to be substantially restricted, where will the remaining operators conduct their business?
The answer to me is quite clear – further offshore. I well remember my friend and colleague, Dr.Hagen Stehr, of Australia's Clean Seas Tuna group (in which our family has some shares) predicting this about ten years ago.
Fish farms can be very polluting. If they are inshore and fixed in location, there is little opportunity for faeces and food waste to be dispersed. The fish are living in their own filth. This is bad for the environment, for the product and for business.
Inevitably, mariculture will have to move further offshore where the water is deeper and cleaner. Fish farms will have to become mobile to prevent unhealthy and unsightly accumulations of wastes. They will have to get bigger, stronger and more seaworthy.
To handle such larger farms, bigger, more powerful and more versatile vessels will be required. Anchor handlers, supply vessels and crew/supply vessels will all be required. As government policies force the price of seafood upwards, the mariculture sector will become increasingly similar to the offshore oil and gas business.
Much the same seems bound to happen to the mining industry. As more and more restrictions are placed on mining the deposits that occur on the 30 per cent of the planet that is on land, offshore deposits will, inevitably, become more interesting.
The offshore oil and gas business is certainly still lucrative at current prices. However there are a number of other actual or potential uses for its vessels and their associated technology, should the oil and gas sector falter.
Neil Baird
Editor-in-Chief
