Indonesian Oil & Gas Vessel Provider Eyes Offshore Wind

Indonesia-based offshore support vessel (OSV) owner and operator, Wintermar Offshore Marine, is looking at offshore wind as part of its growth strategy, according to a recent investor update from the company.

On 24 June, Wintermar, which operates a fleet of 42 offshore vessels, unveiled its growth strategy to position the company for an anticipated upturn in drilling and announced that it had invested USD 12 million to acquire three platform supply vessels (PSVs) and three anchor handling tug supply (AHTS) vessels since November 2021 to gear up for new drilling cycle.

In the short term, the company expects a stronger 2023 as there has been an increase in project approvals for offshore oil and gas drilling and an increase in demand for OSVs. For the oil and gas market, the company has an optimistic view for the coming years as well, anticipating OSV charter rates to rise due to the demand related to the jump in offshore drilling projects.

In the long term, Wintermar is also eyeing the offshore wind market, where investments are expected to grow, as an addition to its business in the oil and gas sector, for which the company expects investments to be stable in the long term.

Wintermar states that, as an OSV operator, it will benefit from both higher demand for vessels initially from the oil and gas industry, but also from the offshore wind industry as increase in demand is expected in the coming years.

In its presentation from 24 June, the company refers to Rystad Energy’s vessel analysis report according to which the total offshore vessel demand for wind energy projects will increase to more than 300 from 2026 and to more than 400 three years later.

The analysis also shows oil and gas total offshore vessel demand will climb to over 2,000 in 2024, and then slowly start to drop as of 2028.

For the future, Wintermar will focus on higher value vessels to improve fleet yields and continue to improve cost efficiency, the company said, reporting that 95 per cent of its fleet is concentrated into higher value vessels at this time as it had “improved the fleet composition through the sale and reinvestment of certain vessels”.

Follow offshoreWIND.biz on: