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said. ?As for supply boats--important in loading and unloading cargo--they're get longer and longer,? he said. ?They used to be 180 feet, but are now as long as 280 or 300 feet. They can carry large loads of cargo, both on the back deck and in tanksunderneath.? However, he said ?the speed of these larger supply vessels isn't terribly different from their predecessor, 180-foot versions." In the last decade or so, Tidewater vessels have been built mainly in for- eign shipyards, and a few have come from the company's wholly-owned subsidiary, Quality Shipyards, L.L.C in Houma, La. Tidewater owns 350 vessels, making it one of the world's largest fleets serving the offshore energy industry. DEEPWATER SECTOR EXPECTED TOEXPAND GLOBALLY Oil company activity remains slug- gish in the U.S. Gulf because of slow, federal permitting of wells, even though the drilling moratorium--imposed during the BP spill--ended ayear ago. Offshore prospects are brighter globally, however. A staff paper titled ?The History of Offshore Oil and Gas in the United States,? prepared for the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and released earlier this year, said ?the march of innova- tion into ever-deeper waters and new geological environments offshore is already one of the most important stories in the history of the oil busi- ness. The largest additions to worldhydrocarbon reserves and production during the next several decades will likely come from offshore, and increasingly from deep water beyond 1,000-foot depths.?The need for offshore vessels that are either bigger, faster, more energy efficient or any combination thereof is likely to grow, industry members said. That demand can be supplied by firms in the U.S. Gulf--where off- shore service dates back to the region's initial, 1937 Creole Field dis- covery off of Louisiana's coast. The U.S. Gulf supplies 30 percent of the nation's oil and gas production. Susan Buchanan is a New Orleans- based business writer, specializing in energy, maritime matters, agriculture, the environment and construction. She holds a master's degree from Cornell University in agricultural economics and an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania. www.marinelink.com MN63MN#11 (50-65):MN 2011 Layouts 10/28/2011 10:35 AM Page 63