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E-NAV OFFSHORE

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E-NAV OFFSHORE

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E-NAV Offshore

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In only three years, offshore support vessel and owner E-NAV Offshore has risen to become the largest OSV owner in Mexico and one of the top 15 largest in the world. Having been established in the midst of Covid chaos and restrictions, the company has endured the worst and come out strong. E-NAV’s Partner, Vice President and CCO Diego Alonso Aguilar spoke to Richard Hagan about the company’s rapid rise to the top.

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rom its headquarters in Mexico City, E-NAV Offshore operates what it says is the most modern fleet of offshore vessels in the world.

Its fleet consists of 33 offshore support vessels of diverse capabilities, including construction, maintenance and subsea services. This diversity enables the company to participate in a wide range of segments in the offshore industry.

The modernity of its fleet is a point of pride for the company and a crucial selling point, said Diego Alonso Aguilar, Partner, VP and CCO. “The worldwide OSV fleet is ageing, whilst the average age of our fleet is seven years old and some are really high-tech, too, meaning we are very modern in comparison.

More than 80% of our vessels are diesel-electric, which produces reduced emissions and fuel consumption. In fact, we’re one of the few fleet owners with such a high average.

Having such a young, modern fleet puts the company at an advantage.”

Acquiring the fleet Following a 15 year history of working in the industry, Mr Aguilar’s business instincts for the offshore market proved vital in the creation of E-NAV Offshore and the subsequent acquisition of its new fleet.

“The market had been down since 2015 and based on that and my experience, I knew that there would soon be acquisition opportunities at great prices,” he explained. “That was the reason we entered the market during such a tough period, in the midst of

Covid and in a downturn in the industry.

The timing has worked in our favour.”

Mr Aguilar conceptualised and founded E-NAV Offshore in partnership with a private equity group and two other business partners in 2019. This well-resourced partnership moved quickly and acquired its first vessels in 2019 and 2020.

“We were born in the middle of a pandemic, which was a very tough time to start a new business, but we’ve been very successful so far,” he commented.

“Then at the end of February 2022, we bought a large fleet of vessels that will operate in several countries.”

The fleet was acquired from Pacific Radiance amidst a restructuring process.

“We now have anchor handlers and large support vessels that weren’t

E-NAV OFFSHORE

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originally on our acquisition map,” Mr Aguilar revealed. “It made it a very exciting move for us. It has simultaneously made us the largest ship owner in Mexico and one of the top 15 mobile players in the world.”

Moving maritime markets E-NAV Offshore’s operations currently centre around three main markets: the Middle East, South-East Asia, and the Americas (including Mexico and the Caribbean). But according to Mr Aguilar, the company plans to invert its current market commitments.

“Today our biggest market is South-East Asia, followed by the Middle East and then the Americas. In the next 12 to 18 months we plan to reconfigure those. The Americas will become our strongest, the Middle East will take the middle spot, and South-East Asia the third.

“In our assessment, the market in the Americas is much better for us, whereas South-East Asia is a tough, highly competitive market,” he continued. “The local firms are very strong there. For those reasons, we’re planning to deploy our fleet into markets better suited for our operations.”

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E-NAV Offshore

A particular highlight of the company’s global operations is its pioneering deployment of one of its vessels into Guyana.

It’s a relatively untapped market that represents a real milestone for E-NAV Offshore, Mr Aguilar revealed.

“We were one of the first offshore vessel companies to work in Guyana, which is a market with huge potential. One of our vessels is still working there. That’s an important highlight for the company because there are only three or four other operators working there.”

Colombia is expected to be next: “We plan to start working in Colombia shortly, which is a fast-growing market for offshore business, with big projects from the likes of Total and ExxonMobil,” Mr Aguilar confirmed. “They’ve found a lot of oil there.”

Meanwhile, E-NAV Offshore also expects to see some projects flowing from the surging US renewable energy market.

“There aren’t enough vessels in the US to handle the work required in the offshore renewable energy market,” Mr Aguilar commented. “We anticipate that there will be plenty of opportunities in 2023 for us, especially for offshore

accommodation. We will be bringing one or two of our accommodation vessels in to support the industry and to take advantage of opportunities there.”

Balance sheets and smart fleets In an industry facing widespread uncertainty, E-NAV Offshore’s strong ownership structure and healthy resources are set to deliver a future that looks bright, said Mr Aguilar, who also drew attention to the company’s advantageous reach across several geographic markets.

“One of the most important differentiators for us is our financial situation. We have a green balance sheet and don’t have debt issues like so many others in this industry.

The diversity of the regions we operate in is also key to our success. Normally, OSV operators are very regional, which makes it difficult for them to capture opportunities further away.”

The company intends to maintain its momentum through the careful management of its fleet profile. Mr Aguilar explained this means cutting the fat off its

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recently acquired fleet in order to focus on its core competencies.

“We plan to sell off non-strategic vessels so that our fleet isn’t as complex or diversified. Going forward, we’ll focus on three or four segments and, based on those needs, we’ll look at further asset acquisitions. Our fleet size will probably stay around 30 to 40 vessels.”

Capturing sustainability Like any other fleet owner, E-NAV Offshore is prioritising emissions-reduction measures.

According to Mr Aguilar, several solutions are either already in use or under investigation. One solution the company is actively exploring is the installation of cutting-edge carbon capture systems.

“Sustainability and emissions reduction are very important to us,” he confirmed.

“We’re working on a couple of hybrid solutions and analysing various incoming technologies. We’re testing carbon capture equipment on a select few vessels.

We’re testing it to see how it works, how much carbon it captures and how we can measure it.

“Carbon capture is the second step in our sustainability program,” he continued.

“The first was bringing diesel-electric vessels into our fleet. The target is to have 100% of our fleet being diesel-electric.

We’re already at 80% so we’ve made good progress on that.”

Beyond those measures, E-NAV Offshore is in close, active communication

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with the companies that are at the forefront of developing emissions-reduction technologies. It is actively investigating any breakthroughs and investigating the same for economic viability.

In closing, Mr Aguilar remarked on the positive state of the market.

“The market has been great in 2022 so far. Offshore activity has grown a lot, with many acquisitions. We’ve seen more acquisitions in the last two years than we’ve seen in the past seven, so the market is really moving. We’re obviously concerned about the geopolitical climate and rising crude oil prices, but we’re excited to see that today the market is finally in our favour after seven years of difficulties.” n