Page 24: of Marine News Magazine (November 2025)

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Feature

OSVs “For the last few years, climate and energy policymakers have convinced themselves the world was inexorably moving away from fossil fuels. Breaking news: It is not.” – IEA the $9.7 billion consideration might be used for “oppor- saying “We are early into it, which is great.” tunistic exploration of Gulf of America and international On the demand side, the TDW CEO pointed to in- areas of operation.” creased activity, including in areas that have not been active

At Marine Money’s June 2025 signature event, Quin- in recent years; but he did point out that: “In the U.S. Gulf, tin Kneen, President and CEO of vessel owner Tidewater activity has been surprisingly slow … but the southern parts (NYSE: TDW), on a panel moderated by Greg Lewis, a of the Caribbean: Guyana, Trinidad and Suriname … have leading equities analyst, with New York based investment really begun to pick up.” After detailing strong activity in bank BTIG, said: “What drives the majority of our busi- Brazil, “continuing to drill through the cycle…”, he said, ness is production-oriented activity.” He went on to note “I still think we have another leg up before we get into any that: “In today’s market, about 55% of the activity of our dif? culties from an oversupply standpoint.” vessels is driven by offshore platforms, any type of produc- The investor reports from TDW, offer excellent insights tion unit … the balance is made up of drilling, offshore into the overall marketplace for PSVs, a big component wind, offshore construction and offshore pipeline sup- of the broader OSV sector. Following over-supply of ves- port.” He said that “…it’s the production activity that re- sels in 2014-2016, a time that demand from drillers eased, ally provides the basis for our activity levels.” Lewis, being utilization dipped down as low as 55% by 2017. An incipi- closely involved with equities’ performance, talked about ent recovery was blunted by the Pandemic of 2020- 2021

TDW’s price being down from recent years’ previous highs with a further dip. TDW’s data shows that demand did from late 2024, and asked Kneen about prospects going indeed recover, reaching to nearly 80% in mid 2024 before forward. In response, Kneen emphasized the importance backing down again. Dayrates, (with TDW citing data of the supply side (with little new equipment on order), from Clarksons), which had plunged to below $10,000

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Harvey Gulf Marine 24 | MN November 2025