Offshore service vessels will be carbon neutral, fully digitalised, highly automated and able to track vessels, cargo, equipment and people in future

ABS has a vision for the future of OSVs

Future proof

Source: ABS

ABS has a vision for the future of OSVs

That’s the vision of the next generation of Offshore Service Vessel (OSV) described in the ABS publication Insights into Future OSV Designs and Operations.

“ABS has a proud record of supporting innovations in OSV design, most recently with ‘tri-fuel’ vessels,” said Matt Tremblay, ABS Vice President, Global Offshore.

We understand how the evolution of these vessels is only just beginning and there is an exciting future ahead: connected, sustainable, increasingly autonomous, multi-functional and highly capable of adapting to serve a variety of use cases. We are now working with leading OSV designers and operators to deliver on this potential.”

Multi-functional

Other insights in the report indicate the future OSV will be multi-functional – equipped to serve multiple offshore sectors – with larger accommodation spaces, heavy-lift cranes, helidecks and streamlined hull forms, all designed to perform complex support operations.

ABS said that the operational capabilities of OSVs may evolve to support many disparate sectors such as offshore wind, space missions (launches and recoveries), carbon capture (transport) and subsea mining.

Another design concept is for an OSV ‘mothership’ that would be crewed, but also house a fleet of autonomous surface vessels, ROVs and autonomous underwater vehicles.

These vehicles could be used for operations such as repair and maintenance, cargo distribution and subsea inspections.

Read the full publication from ABS Insights into Future OSV Designs and Operations