Vessel owners will have to face up to the prospect of further layups in 2016 as North Sea operators scale back on exploration activity.
Norwegian broker Westshore has conducted an extensive study looking at individual operators and surveyed their needs for vessels based on any new production or drilling programmes slated for 2016.
Analyst Inger Louise Molvaer, said: “For PSVs (Platform Supply Vessels) we anticipate more layups, many of which will come from term contracts in the North Sea expiring.
“Operators have already scaled back on the number of PSVs they out on term contracts, with around a 20% reduction from 2014 levels.”
Official statistics from the UK and Norway have shown that exploration drilling programmes will be scaled back this year, compared with 2015.
Norway expects around 32 wells to be drilled this year, down from 56. In the UK, between seven and 10 exploration wells are planned, down from 13 in 2015.
Molvaer said that anchor handler vessels faced a further reduction in activity, but already the spot fleet has faced a huge cut as vessels left the market last year.
“We believe that although the majority of 2016 will be challenging for owners, unexpected eventualities such as weather will result in bottlenecks producing higher peaks in rates. The market will be more volatile than we saw last year,” she said.
The low oil price means that operators are reluctant to invest in further exploration Westshore has found.
“In the short term, this means operators will be very reluctant to add any additional production to their portfolios,” Molvaer added.
“Aside from already sanctioned fields or those that have been publicly announced as getting the go ahead, operators are keeping a lid on additional oil and gas being pumped.”
This month, Viking Supply said it would be putting its last two PSVs into layup. Sealion, Island Offshore and Rem Offshore also laid up supply tonnage in recent weeks.
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