While the OSV market in the oil and gas sector is still in dreary and, sometimes, alarming decline, its counterpart in the offshore wind sector is still buoyant to the point of being alarmingly so.
Almost every day we learn of new wind farm service vessels being designed, ordered, constructed and delivered. This enormous output of new vessels worries me, as regular readers of Baird Maritime are well aware. I see a serious problem of over-investment and over-borrowing on the horizon. It is ominously reminiscent of what happened in the oil and gas sector five to fifteen years ago. Bigger, better, more complex and more expensive boats are being built and all to serve a market that, much worse than the oil and gas sector ever was, is terrifyingly dependent on government subsidies.
It amazes me that bankers continue to plough money into the wind farm service industry even though they must know as well as I do the fickleness of government support. Of course, as with oil and gas, much of this over-investment is being undertaken by the usual suspects. The Norwegians, Danes, southern Americans and Singaporeans are again the major players and punters. I predict that there will be some very nice boats available very cheaply before long.
Meanwhile, during the coming week, Baird Maritime will present our readers with a vast buffet of new designs, vessels and their equipment that are being delivered to the OSV market generally and, most particularly to the offshore wind sector, in several parts of the world. Most of these vessels have been very well designed, constructed and equipped. They are mostly excellent boats that should serve their owners well as long as the boom continues.
The next few years will be very interesting and will likely see the focus return to the oil and gas sector as the world, and its governments, come to realise that fossil fuel cannot practically and economically be completely replaced by renewables. At least that should provide a useful market for the obvious surfeit of first-rate OSVs that is rapidly building.
– "The partners have deliberately chosen to provide unrealistic, but attractive-looking, visions of what the industry will look like."
– by Hieronymus Bosch, anonymous commentator and Baird Maritime's insider in the world of offshore oil and gas operations
– "For all the froth and buzz being generated in Norway and Denmark over the wind sector, it is very clear that the Big Four in Belgium and the Netherlands have the lead in wind, and are backed by a powerful cluster of engineering and technology expertise."
– by Hieronymus Bosch, anonymous commentator and Baird Maritime's insider in the world of offshore oil and gas operations
– "Preventing another accident and preventing future loss of life is something that everyone in the industry should make their number one priority, even if it causes embarrassment to vessel operators and flag states."
– by Hieronymus Bosch, anonymous commentator and Baird Maritime's insider in the world of offshore oil and gas operations
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Any news or views about the global offshore industry? Send it through to editor@baird.com.au ASAP (between now and May 28), so we can add it to this current edition of Offshore Week!
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