Page 48: of Marine News Magazine (September 2019)

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MARINE COATINGS

As the offshore industry recovers, choosing the right hull coating for those newly activated assets will be equally important.

By Davide Ippolito, Hempel A/S he global offshore support vessel (OSV) market is still recovering from a protracted

T slump, but thankfully momentum is now returning with predictions for signi? cant activ- ity for OSV’s ahead. As summarized in a report by market analysts Grand View Research, pro- jections are for the OSV market to exceed USD 71 billion by 2022 on the back of a signi? cant increase in projects reaching ? nal investment decision (FID) status, and a rising demand for oil and gas worldwide. This translates into a compound annual growth rate of more than 11 percent from 2015 and represents signi? cant opportunities for owners and operators of these workhorses of the offshore energy industry.

Yet, it would be remiss to suggest the picture is entirely positive. A signi? cant proportion of existing offshore support vessels are still laid up, sitting out of action waiting to secure favorable rates. According to ? gures from market data platform VesselValue, 36 per cent of OSV’s were laid up at the start of this year, with similar per- centages out of action in the US Gulf, Middle

Chasing

East, West Africa and North West Europe. This represents a sizeable portion of the global OSV ? eet sitting idle or in dry dock. Many of these vessels have been out of service for quite some time, and – with better prospects on the horizon

Better – owners ought to be preparing these ships to come back into service.

Getting Back to Work

Prospects

Ensuring the right hull coatings are applied in good time is a critical step, and careful consider- ation is given to investing in protective coatings solutions that will enable these vessels to oper- ate ef? ciently for the longest possible amount of time. It is widely known across the maritime industry that fuel consumption is greatly in? u-

Credit: Hempel

September 2019 48 MN

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