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4C Offshore | Chris Anderson
By: Chris Anderson 17/03/2015 4C
4C Offshore has a new premium service level report for Wind Farm Service Vessel subscribers which includes access to a highly detailed supply and demand report for Crew Transfer Vessels (CTVs) and Service Operations Vessels (SOVs). With 58 figures the report provides unparalleled insight into current CTV fleet utilisation based on known contracts and AIS data tracking. Utilisation trends are analysed by operator, LOA and country. Operations and maintenance strategies of park operators are considered and used, along with real observations of vessel requirements and a realistic projection of market growth to provide detailed future CTV and SOV demand.

The report provides a detailed look at the Wind Farm Service Vessel (WFSV) market for offshore wind. The depth of analysis is unrivalled and provides valuable strategic insight for vessel operators, shipbuilders, investors, wind farm operators and other organisations in the wind farm operations supply chain.

As projects are moving further offshore the operations and maintenance strategies deployed on projects is changing from a Crew Transfer Vessel (CTV) focused strategy to a mix of strategies that include helicopters, fixed and floating accommodation platforms and Service Operations Vessels (SOVs). This report analyses the strategies currently utilized and those known for future projects in order to provide insight into the demand for CTVs and SOVs for the period 2015 to 2024.

The regulations facing CTVs are considered along with the changing designs of vessels and the lengths and types of vessels (classed versus non-classed and hull type, for example) being introduced. Using a database of contracts and vessel activity spanning two years, an analysis of vessel utilisation is provided, identifying the utilisation rates of the leading operators from the 350-strong fleet. The trend in utilisation by LOA is investigated, with the number of vessel days apportioned by LOA for the past two years. The increasing trend in mean LOA per contracted day is quantified.

As expected, seasonal changes in utilisation of CTVs are apparent and a trend of increasing fragmentation - market share is divided amongst an increasing number of vessel operators. The expected monthly utilisation rate for new vessels entering the market is estimated to be between 15-22 days. The number of WFSV days by country of origin is provided, as is an LOA profile of the vessels active in different countries, plus LOA profiles of different operators. Shipyards are considered, with an overview of those who have successfully entered the market in the last two years.

Recently several operators and a turbine OEM have made commitments to using SOVs on several German and UK projects. These vessels offer increased technician productivity at high levels of comfort. An overview of the use of SOVs past and future, the vessels and project characteristics is provided and used as an evidence base for forecasting future SOV demand.

Progress to date in the European offshore wind industry is analysed and compared to projected future growth to 2024 based on 4C’s mid-case scenario. Between 2015 and 2024 year on year growth of 12.5% is forecasted with a breakdown given by country. Additionally, the volume of offshore wind capacity in the pipeline for each major market is considered in terms of project demand. All future oriented projections of demand have been carefully estimated through a combination of top down offshore wind policy and contextual analysis plus bottom-up scrutinisation of project progress. This provides a credible pipeline of projects scheduled to meet realistic goals.

For each project in this realistic pipeline the number of CTVs and SOV(s) has been modelled using real data on vessel numbers and operations strategies (e.g. CTV, helicopter, platform, SOV) as inputs, thereby providing credible estimates. Demand is classified by year, country of origin and distance from operations port to 2024. CTV supply and demand is compared and the number of classed vessels available at the end of 2014 and 2015 is also provided, allowing for comparisons with country-based CTV demand.

SOV demand shows steady year on year growth to 2024. The report provides details of which projects are likely to require SOVs and highlights further projects that may require SOVs but were narrowly excluded by the selection criteria.

You can view the sample data for the Wind Farm Service Vessel's report HERE.

By filling out a service enquiry HERE you are able to purchase the Wind Farm Service Vessel Subscription.

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