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“...because of sustained low oil prices, it’s no secret that oil-and-gas operators are reducing the number of vessels they’re using for offshore service. Along with less activity comes less need for services, and that trickles down to affect the entire service sector.” – Dave Barousse, general manager at Fleet

Operators, Inc.Construction and

Chief Naval Architect top producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting

Countries (OPEC), and the group has continued to churn out oil at a steady rate even though European demand has eased. Crude oil prices in New York hovered at $52 a barrel in early April, down from $102 last August.

Offshore industry will rebound longer term “Looking at oil futures, the months further out suggest some price optimism,” Barousse offered. “The offshore oil industry and vessel owners will continue riding the price ups-and-downs, and will adjust accordingly. This, of course, can be hard. A lot of great people in the industry are negatively affected by a slowdown of this magnitude.”

Anyone who lived through the previous oil crunch in the mid-1980’s, however, has to be hoping that ultimately, this downturn proves to be nowhere near as signi