Shifting supply and demand balance for CTVs

So noted Ian Baylis of Seacat Services; a dramatic drop from previous years. Alongside this, the acquisition of Turbine Transfers by Northern Offshore Group has recently sent a few shivers through the market. However, Baylis urged a level-headed evaluation: “The slow-down meant too many boats looking for work: if you have a larger fleet, that hurts a bit more – so Holyhead Towing cashed in its TT chips and returned to its core business.”

Although this will make Northern Offshore Group one of the largest players with over 60 vessels, he doesn’t expect too much disruption to market dynamics. “Besides gaining TT’s 25 boats, the group appears keen to retain the workforce and run both crew transfer interests as separate brands with their own identities,” said Baylis. Neither does he believe it risks leaving smaller players out in the cold. “This industry typically requires operators to work together to deliver ‘package’ solutions to the end customer: there’s always a need to collaborate, that won’t change.”

However, activities are ramping up again, shifting the supply and demand balance and making the shortfall in new tonnage more apparent: this also added to the lower numbers on the Seawork pontoon. Despite “no more than five CTVs currently on the drawing board or under build in the UK” Baylis told MJ that Seacat is responsible for two of them. Further, the hiatus handed the company “a clean sheet of paper for CTV development”, so Seacat’s initial boat (built by Diverse Marine) will be the inaugural Chartwell 24 design. He added: “It was the first time we’ve been free enough to go to the yard and say, ‘can you build this for us’?”

Realistically, future opportunities may be narrowed by technical advances: “Developers are beginning to favour fewer turbines for the same power and these are deployed more efficiently, some being switched on just six hours after completion,” he explained, making less work for the support teams.

On the other hand, he underlined: “We are expecting a whole pile of projects to start kicking off,” he said. So, next year’s Seawork may well see a return of the CTVs.

By Stevie Knight