area report North Sea
Large AHTS tonnage busy on the spot market
Owners of large anchor-handling tug/supply (AHTS) vessels look set for a busy summer on the North Sea spot market, judging by fixture activity in April
were picked up by vessels with a bhp of at least 18,000 – the largest in the fleet. Siem Offshore, Maersk Supply Service and Viking Supply Ships all picked up work for their AHTS vessels during the month, with the top fixture paying around £70,000 per day. Solstad’s Normand Prosper, an AHTS/subsea
F
vessel of STX AH12 CD design, was reportedly fixed by ConocoPhillips for a spot fixture at that top day rate on April 17. An average of just over £38,000 was recorded for all AHTS vessels with a bhp of greater than 18,000 – an average which looks set to increase as the North Sea enters its busy summer season. Vessel owners can expect their large tonnage to pick up work in the construction support market, as well as the traditional supply market which will include rig move and cargo run duties. Rig moves have long been the bread and butter for AHTS vessels, and owners can expect to find plenty of work in this category, with most semis and jack-ups in the North Sea booked up for the rest of this year and well into 2013. With overall utilisation in the North Sea expected to reach around 94 per cent for the majority of this summer according to IHS, some operators could be forced to employ large AHTS tonnage for general supply runs and cargo duties, should availability be tight on the platform supply vessel (PSV) side of the fleet. And, with construction support duties also
calling for AHTS vessels during the summer, the market does appear to be relatively strong. For example, Island Offshore’s Island Valiant – an AHTS vessel of UT787LCD design – has recently been operating on a subsea/construction support charter for EMAS AMC lasting 30 days firm, plus options. Prior to that, it had been operating for Subsea 7 on the spot market, showing the possibilities with which large AHTS tonnage can slip in and out of the subsea and supply vessel markets.
24 I Offshore Support Journal I June 2012
igures from IHS Petrodata show that of the 70 spot fixtures recorded in the North Sea for AHTS vessels, 53 of them
Normand Prosper is one of a number of vessels to have picked up well-paid fixtures
The ordering of newbuild OSVs has mainly been restricted to PSVs during the last 24 months or so, with the majority of established Norway-based players picking up vessels with a deadweight of
at least 4,000 tonnes and
deck space of around 1,000m2. This is a result of a forecasted increase in demand for this type of tonnage in the next three years not only in the North Sea, but in regions such as South America and West Africa. The latter, in particular, is of interest given the current and future development of deepwater areas which will require sophisticated PSVs capable of staying out at sea for long periods supporting the projects there.
So what about the possibility of more large
AHTS vessels being ordered by vessel owners in the coming weeks and months? The very high cost of building such a vessel at reputable yards in Norway will continue to put some potential buyers off; however, it hasn’t put off newcomer Iceman AS, which has placed a NKr850 million (US$147 million) order for an AHTS vessel of AH 12 design.
for multi-role
The 34,000 bhp AHTS will be equipped operations
in harsh Arctic
conditions, and will be built to ice-class standards. It will be 94m in length, with a beam of 24m. Delivery from an STX yard in Norway is scheduled for mid-2013, prior to which the hull will have been built at the STX OSV yard in Romania. Such a large outlay suggests that the owner
already has lucrative work in mind for the vessel – however, it remains to be seen what this work will be, how much the contract is worth, and if it prompts the ordering of more tonnage from other players. Farstad Shipping also recently spent over US$200 million to acquire two large newbuild AHTS vessels of UT731CD design at the STX Langsten yard, with delivery scheduled for 2014. It already has two other AHTS vessels of the same design due for delivery in 2013, showing the faith that one of the OSV market’s most established players has in the long-term future of the market. And it is the long-term outlook which owners have to look at given the high cost of ordering this tonnage – the problem being that predicting market conditions 5-10 years down the line hasn’t always been the easiest of tasks. OSJ
www.osjonline.com
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