Page 39: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Mar/Apr 2019)

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It’s been a tough market for heavy lift vessel operators – but that’s not stopping them renewing and reinventing their ? eets.

BY ELAINE MASLIN he offshore installation market has been tough, espe- cially for those with installation vessels – resource and cash intensive assets. Depending on when you start

Tcounting from, there have been “three bad years for the installation market,” Edward Heerema, founder and owner

Allseas, said, “for everyone. Oil companies have been hold- ing back investment. There is only low-cost development and there’s heavy competition. Everyone has been going after the same job, and prices are very low.”

Jack Spaan, expert heavy lift, at Boskalis Offshore Energy takes a stronger word, calling the last three years as terrible and added that, “When I count them it’s about four. It’s a dif? cult market and a lot of change has been going on for con- tractors. Looking for ef? ciency in operations is very

Stella Synergy, important.” an Ulstein-

For Wout Janssens, Director Operations and Engi- designed X-Bow heavy lift vessel neering, at Jumbo, “The last three to four years were for Jumbo, is horrendous in our industry. Those still standing rec- expected to be ognize what we went through.” delivered in the

Whatever the words used, there’s a theme. Opera- ? rst quarter of tors have been reorganizing their assets and organiza- 2020. tions and seeking new markets, from a full ? eet color change (to grey, for Boskalis), to the likes of Seaway

Heavy Lifting, now part of Subsea 7, looking to diversi? cation into offshore wind and decommissioning.

The cause of this pain has been the drop in the oil price in 2014 and a slowdown in offshore installation. While some con- ? dence has been returning to the market, it’s not necessarily feeding through to fabrication work, as evidenced by the Heer- ema Fabrication Group’s decision to close its Zwijndrecht yard in the Netherlands, after Italian fabrication group Rosetti Ma- rino decided against acquiring the facility.

Yet, contractors, led by the Dutch, who have been the lead- ers in the offshore heavy lift market for some time, continue to evolve and adapt.

Allseas

The Pioneering Spirit, introduced by Allseas in 2016, and slated as the world’s largest vessel, in terms of gross ton- nage (403,342gt), breadth (123.75 meters), and displacement (900,000 metric tons), has proved its capabilities, both for lift- ing out decommissioned facilities in one fell swoop, to install- ing new topsides, such as the new 22,000-metric-ton drilling

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