FOCUS Offshore Supply Chain
History Revisited
By Jim Redden, Correspondent
M
Shell Oil Co.
atthew Rigdon doesn’t hide his astonishment that long-stacked and largely inefficient deepwater offshore service
vessels have returned to active duty. “I was shocked that some early 2005 boats that are direct-drive and non-diesel electric have been reactivated and they are working,” said Rigdon, vice president and chief operating officer of
Gulf PSVs are in high demand, supporting deepwater production facilities, like Shell’s Mars B Olympus platform.
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Idle vessels are few and far between along South Louisiana waterways these days.
Jackson Offshore Operators LLC, Houston. “These aren’t fuel efficient and generally not very attractive for our clients. That just tells you what demand is.” The fledgling recovery in the Gulf of Mexico oil and gas sector has brought with it a shortage of deepwater support vessels, and more notably, a shrinking pool of mariners. It is an environment strikingly reminiscent of the one described in the The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune on May 27, 2012: “Offshore operators face shortage of qualified mariners.” At that time, operators were two years removed from a federally enacted shutdown in response to the deadly Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill. Ten years later, they are in the second year of recovering from the Covid-fueled market crash and, again, history has come a-calling.
www.workboat.com • NOVEMBER 2022 • WorkBoat
Greater Lafourche Port Commission
Shortage of mariners, boats and record costs greet Gulf of Mexico rally.
