Page 11: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Sep/Oct 2025)

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MARKETS OSVs © NickEyes / Adobe Stock

MAJOR OIL AND GAS PROJECTS

DRIVE STRONG OSV DEMAND

IN THE MIDDLE EAST

The Middle East has served as a stronghold for offshore support vessel (OSV) activity in recent years, largely driven by national oil companies (NOCs) with a clear strategy of increasing offshore oil and gas production. Several major projects have lately reached final investment decisions, such as the Hail and Gasha gas project in Abu Dhabi, the

Zuluf Expansion in Saudi Arabia, and the North Field Expansion project in Qatar, resulting in attractive demand fundamentals for local OSV operators.

By Theodor Sørlie, Senior Analyst at Fearnley Offshore Supply n the United Arab Emirates, ADNOC is pushing redelivered vessels due to these suspensions, even allowing towards increasing its overall production up to 5 many shipowners to recontract at higher dayrates. million barrels per day by 2027, up from roughly 4 million in 2021. In Qatar, QatarEnergy’s total LNG

I Fleet Growth Amid Global Market Contraction production is expected to reach 142 million tonnes per an- Over the past decade, favorable demand fundamentals num, up from 77 million in 2024. have contributed to a steady increase in the number of

During the 2020 oil price war, Saudi Aramco announced operational OSVs in the region. Specifcally, the working plans to increase production capacity to 13 million barrels platform supply vessel (PSV) feet has grown from ap- per day. Subsequently, we saw a rise in the Kingdom’s jack- proximately 80 units in 2015 to an estimated 140 vessels up rig count from 49 during the COVID period to 90 by by 2025. early 2024, raising the demand for OSVs in the region even Similarly, the working anchor handling tug supply higher. Last year, a revision of the production target led to (AHTS) vessel feet expanded from around 300 units to the suspension of approximately 30 jack-ups. Although 330 during the same period. Although these growth fg- this development was expected to negatively impact the ures may appear modest over ten years, it is important to vessel market, a substantial engineering, procurement, and note that key OSV markets such as the North Sea, West construction (EPC) project backlog largely absorbed the Africa, and Southeast Asia experienced a reduction in aver-

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2025 OFFSHORE ENGINEER 11