North Sea Offshore Support Vessels Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The North Sea offshore support vessels market industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 2% during the forecast period of 2020-2025. Factors such as rising offshore exploration and production activities, growth in a number of offshore oil & gas fields, continuous development of offshore reserves (field development), MRI (Maintenance Repair and Inspection) and ever increasing demand for energy and petrochemicals are expected to drive the market over the forecast period. On the other hand, switching to dynamic positioning (DP) rigs from non-dynamic positioning rigs, and a higher number of laid-up vessels are anticipated to hinder the market growth.

Key Highlights

• The Platform Supply Vessels (PSVs) held a significant market share in 2018, and it is likely to dominate the market during the forecast period.
• The increasing number of exploration activities in the North Sea from counties such as the United Kingdom, Norway, and Denmark, etc. are likely to create a good amount of opportunities for offshore support vessels market industry.
• The United Kingdom is expected to drive the market demand, owing to the number of ongoing projects during the forecast period.

Key Market Trends

Increasing Demand for Platform Supply Vessels (PSVs)

• Platform Supply Vessels (PSVs) are the offshore vessels used for transferring equipment, rig crew, and other goods to the offshore drilling and production platform. For deep-water drilling operations, where the offshore rig platforms have limited space, platform supply vessels are used for transportation of drilling and casing pipes, drilling and completion fluids, and others.
• The demand for platform supply vessels is driven by the uptake in offshore drilling activity. As these wells come into the production stage, the demand is further expected to be boosted. This is expected to result in the improvement of the overall utilization of platform supply vessels in the coming years.
• Horns Rev is an offshore wind farm in Danish waters in the North Sea. The wind farm was built in three phases i.e. Horns Rev 3 project is built on Denmark and can produce 406.4 MW. The first turbine started to produce electricity for the grid in December 2018, and the last turbine was installed in January 2019. The official inauguration of Horns Rev 3 was done on August 2019.
• Also, on October 7th, 2019, Equinor produces first oil from North Sea Sverdrup mega-project i.e. production has started from the Johan Sverdrup phase 1 field development in the central Norwegian North Sea. This was Norway’s largest offshore greenfield development project since 1980, with recoverable reserves estimated at 2.7 Bboe.
• In 2018, some PSVs were purchased by renewable specialists to support offshore windmill projects, meanwhile Remoy Shipping converted the PSV Lewek Aquarius into a seismic vessel to secure a longer contract.
• Culzean is the largest North Sea gas project in a quarter of a century. It is made up of two deep reservoirs 4,300 meters below sea level, with reserves estimated at between 250 million and 300 million barrels of oil equivalent. Production started in June 2019 and should meet 5% of the United Kingdom’s gas demand, bringing to 18% the proportion of the country’s gas demand supplied by Total.
• Therefore, activities in offshore which require crew and equipment that are majorly transferred by platform supply vessels (PSVs) are going to increase and likely to have a positive impact on the North Sea offshore support vessels market industry over the forecast period.

The United Kingdom to Drive the Market Demand

• The number of offshore support vessels in the United Kingdom, as of 2018 was 123. Gross tonnage and deadweight tonnage in the United Kingdom are 216 and 231 respectively.
• The average offshore rig count for the United Kingdom as of 2019, is likely to be 14.25 units, which is slightly high compared to other countries in the North Sea region. Also, the offshore rig count in Dec 2019 was decreased to 11 units from 14 units in Nov 2019.
• BP has extended Vroon offshore services contract on February 28th, 2020, to supply emergency response and rescue vessels in the United Kingdom North Sea and West of Shetland. The three-year extension until 2023 is valued at around USD 38.67 million and covers the deployment of the VOS Discovery, VOS Fairness, VOS Innovator, and VOS Vigilant.
• On September 20, 2019, United Kingdom authorities announced that Equinor and its partner SSE were awarded contracts to develop three large scale offshore wind projects in the Dogger Bank region of the North Sea. This is expected to be the world’s biggest offshore wind farm development with a total installed capacity of 3.6GW.
• Hence, based on the above-mentioned factors, the United Kingdom is anticipated to drive the market significantly over the forecast period.

Competitive Landscape

The North Sea offshore support vessels market is fragmented. The key players include Gulfmark Offshore Inc, Tidewater Inc., SEACOR Marine LLC, Bourbon Corporation SA, Siem Offshore Inc.

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