Clarksons Platou has combined its subsea and renewables desks in Oslo, while adding one new shipbroker.

The move reflects the merging nature of two traditionally disparate sectors — as well as a start to recovery in the offshore sector, Petter Dyring tells TradeWinds.

The company has subsea and ­renewables brokers spread across the world who co-operate with the eight-strong Oslo team, which has four staff in each sector.

Offshore veteran Dyring, divisional director of subsea, has added broker Christina Meskestad to cover chartering and North Sea projects for the oil and gas side. The other half of the team is ­divisional director of renewables Frederik Colban-Andersen and three other brokers who specialise in the wind sector.

“Bringing together our renew­ables and subsea brokers in one desk is partly our way of showing that these two markets are now becoming more and more integrated,” Dyring said.

“We see that there’s already a vessel flow back and forth between the two markets. We think that there’s going to be a requirement for more oil and gas experience in offshore wind as that industry ­becomes more complicated and therefore we would want to have these teams working together as one.”

Clarksons Platou is gearing up for the long-awaited offshore recovery, which Dyring says is now clearly in the making.

“On our mega-desk, we are doing sale and purchase, newbuildings, spot and term chartering of all types of subsea and offshore renewables tonnage. And it is my opinion that we definitely need a team of eight people here in Oslo to meet the expected demand.”

Dyring says that some shipowners traditionally focused on servicing the oil and gas industry have been slow off the mark to venture into offshore wind. This is partly because they had been earning strong margins in oil and gas, and had to start from scratch to discover the customer base and market needs of the wind business.

“What I think is going to be interesting is how we can accelerate the transition of owners’ oil and gas experience into offshore wind,” he said. “This is because wind is going into deeper water, the complexity is growing and the volume of the wind farms is now many times what it was 10 years ago, in terms of the size and numbers of turbines.”

The next step is floating wind farms, which “definitely will require much more of the oil and gas know-how”. Mooring a large floating wind tower will be similar to the mooring work for a floating production, storage and offloading vessel or an offloading buoy in oil and gas, he says.

Lower costs

“Everything looks right for oil and gas players to take a larger part in offshore wind. That has also helped bring down the cost base and [wind clients] are benefiting now from lower and lower costs in developing wind farms,” he said.

These lower costs have, in turn, played a part in allowing offshore wind to start to stand on its own legs and be less reliant on subsidies. That is a good sign for continued growth and vessel demand.

Clarksons Platou believes the offshore market is turning, which Dyring says will eventually trigger increases in day rates and costs in a rising oil and gas sector, and also in offshore wind as vessels migrate out of renewables to seek better margins.

Another big storm is brewing in offshore, according to Dyring. But this time it will favour shipowners and oil service companies.

“It is not going to come in 2018 but in 2019; we may have a perfect storm in the sense that offshore wind will still be in growth mode, and oil and gas will really pick up speed,” he said. “This is because all the data we have indicates that the oil companies currently are under­investing, they are delaying maintenance and there’s no preventative maintenance.”

The lag time on contracts may mean the subsea market experiences a “brief vacuum” in 2018. But it could see an upwards spiral, comparable to the white-hot markets from 2004, if maintenance, new projects and other work all fall due at the same time in 2019.

The argument for oil company investments is strong. Sanctioning of new projects meant 92% to 144% of offshore-only oil reserves were being replaced from 2009 to 2014, with the peak year in 2011.

After the downturn hit, and oil companies slammed the brakes on spending, the reserve replacement ratio fell to 37% in 2015 and 31% this year, according to Clarksons Platou.

This makes budget increases likely but commitments in capital expenditures have already risen significantly for offshore greenfield projects so far this year — by 87% to nearly $80bn.

In addition, multi-client sales are stronger for marine seismic, which is a bellwether for the sector. The global rig count has stabilised and is starting to rise, while the subsequent demand for offshore support vessels is also reversing course, Clarksons Platou says.