Page 62: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 2011)

58Maritime Reporter & Engineering News 2011 YEARBOOKOFFSHORE REPORTFew maritime companies have had the impact on the maritime and offshore mar- kets as Bourbon, the French corporation which in the past decade has been stead- fast in its mission to build and maintain one of the worlds newest, largest and most technologically advanced fleets of offshore service vessels. Maritime Re- porter caught up with Bourbons CEO, Christian Lefèvre, to discuss the tumult of the past 24 months, and the promise of the coming 24. By Greg Trauthwein, Editor How did the global economic crisis make Bourbon a stronger company? Lefèvre Bourbon has come out rein-forced from the crisis as we looked at what was happening as an opportunity rather than as a threat. Bourbon resistedwell and built a genuine bridge over trou- bled waters, thereby allowing the Group to maintain its growth strategy. In a world economy marked by a major recession and volatile oil prices, oil & gas clients became ever more demanding as a greater choice was being offered to them and they naturally opted for more effi- cient and economic vessels. Bourbon ad- justed to the new market conditions, avoiding overcapacity, while at the same time continuing to ensure high quality ofservice, availability and the greatest choice to its clients. More than ever, the assets of our modern, innovative and cost-efficient fleet, combined with our strong safety performance standards anda highly targeted newbuilding strategy, have demonstrated that Bourbon was well positioned in a challenging market context and even continued to envisage the future as we launched our new devel- opment plan mid-2010. Can you comment on how Bourbon is investing today? Lefèvre While navigating through chal- lenging seas, we never lost sight of the next strategic move that would help us preserve our competitiveness. Following on the previous strategic plans launched in 2003 and in 2007, Bourbon announcedits 2015 Leadership Strategy? in June 2010 and committed to another $2bworth of investments in future growth. The particularity of this new, ambitious, plan is the modularity of investments. In- deed, contrary to previous plans where orders were launched continuously, Bourbon now has the capacity to adapt the management of investments on the basis of a segment by segment market analysis, enabling us to make investment decisions at the right time at the rightplace and in the right proportion. Thanks to the Bourbon 2015 Leadership Strategy, we will offer our clients a large fleet of 600 innovative and high performance vessels for deepwater and shallow water, four years from now. This ambitious plan will allow us to take advantage both of the growth in the deepwater market and the renewal of old shallow-water vessels. We have planned for 50 vessels to be built for shallow-water operations and 30 for deep-water, in addition to some 64 crewboats, totalling all in all 144 vessels. As of March 31, 2011, Bourbons fleet counts 418 vessels for an average age of 5.5 years. Geographically, what are the most inter- esting business areas today and why? Lefèvre Bourbon is present in all pro-duction areas as it accompanies demandwhere it is to be found. Historically, Bourbon has developed in West Africa, namely in Angola and Nigeria. West Africa continues to be highly importantfor Bourbon, building up on our 20-year presence in the region. We grow either by opening new affiliates, as recently in Australia, Turkey and Russia, or by set- ting up local partnerships on a win-winbasis, which allow us to share operational functions, investments, practices and val- ues. Bourbon also pursues its growth in areas where new discoveries are being made, namely in Brazil and Africa. What are the biggest challenges running a safe, efficient shipping company? LefèvreListening to and satisfyingclients is the daily challenge for Bourbon,focusing on:?safety of people, assets and environment onshore and at sea ?reliability and availability of vessels for continuity of service ?operational cost cuts ?personnels skills to guarantee quality of service The human factor is of significant impor- tance to Bourbon and we are convinced that our unique positioning and the youngprofile of our fleet help us attract highly competent people. It is important to un-derline that in the context of the Bourbon Lefèvre Powers Bourbon Ahead Christian Lefèvre, Chief Executive Officer of Bourbon. (Copyright Bourbon)The support operation with the IMR Bourbon Jade, Bourbons vessel in Angola. (Copyright Bourbon)