The North Sea anchor-handling tug supply (AHTS) market has yet to see a repeat of the sky-high summer rates enjoyed by owners last year.
Norwegian shipbroker Seabrokers said charterers will be pleased that the spot sector is working in a much “more normal” manner in 2023.
The Oslo shop said that when viewing the average monthly spot rates for June in comparison with 2022, it would appear that AHTS owners had endured a terrible month, with earnings down more than 70% year on year.
But this is a drop from a very high level when spot vessel supply was decimated due to the high number of project charters that emerged last year.
Average rates last June were north of £120,000 ($131,000) per day.
This time around, they were a much more palatable £31,000 to £32,000 for charterers.
On the platform supply vessel side, it was a remarkably quiet month for large ships with a deck area of more than 900 square metres.
“There were very few fixtures recorded for vessels in this category in June, mainly because such a high proportion of large PSVs in the region have been employed on a term charter,” Seabrokers said.
“It has become common to only have nine or 10 large PSVs trading on the spot market this summer, so there have been situations where charterers have taken smaller vessels ... where they may previously have had the opportunity to take a larger, higher-spec PSV on hire instead,” the broker said.
The Norwegian spot fleet of seven PSVs of all sizes were fixed this week, with only two of 33 spot ships free in the UK.
Split between UK and Norwegian outlook
Seabrokers also noted a growing division within the North Sea market between the two main sources of offshore vessel demand in the region.
In the UK, the company said there has been a steady stream of negative developments due to the windfall tax that has been implemented by the government.
In Norway, the opposite is the case, with a long list of field development plans granted regulatory approval.
That is leading to a positive outlook for vessel owners, the broker added.
One of the most significant recent developments has been the decision by Apache to suspend all platform drilling off the UK as a consequence of the “burdensome regulatory environment,” Seabrokers said.
However, Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has just confirmed that 19 oil and gas projects have been given the green light.
This will mean an investment totalling more than NOK 200bn ($18.6bn).
