More than one in four offshore vessels are now laid up, according to data from online pricing portal, VesselsValue. PSVs are the worst affected with 36% of the fleet currently laid up.
VesselsValue’s senior offshore analyst Charlie Hockless commented: “Estimating the number of vessels in lay-up is an imperfect science, however, using a big data approach VesselsValue can provide a valid estimation using the following methodology. VV observes the recency of a vessel’s AIS signal and filters the data appropriately. Vessels that have not signalled for over a week are considered to be in lay-up.”
A report by AlixPartners published last month suggested 2017 was likely to be one of the harshest years ever for OSV operators.
“There simply isn’t and won’t be enough work for all players going forward into the foreseeable future. And it’s hard to persuade others to scrap their vessels, because like your own, they were built to a high technological and engineering standard – read: expensive – just a few years ago,” said Albert Stein, managing director and leader of the shipping team for AlixPartners.
Total global exploration and production spending on OSVs has declined from $18.1bn in 2014 to $11.9bn last year, according AlixPartners with rates down 60-65% in some markets, and utilisation dropping 40%.
