Columbia Shipmanagement has launched a new business targeting offshore, renewable energy and green recycling.
CSM Energy will initially run out of the company's existing offices in Cyprus and Germany and will potentially seek to expand into Asia.
Mark O'Neil, chief executive of Columbia, tells TradeWinds: “We have realised that offshore was a hole in our offering and have been waiting for the right opportunity.
“It has now started and we offer all of our management services to the offshore market but also the wider energy market as well, looking at wind, alternative sources of energy and into green recycling”
O'Neil declines to identify specific initial business for CSM Energy, which has been set up during in the past couple of months and is now being unveiled.
Across vessel types
In offshore and renewables, it will look at vessels ranging from platform supply vessels and anchor-handlers to windfarm ships.
“There are a number of opportunities and projects that have presented themselves,” O’Neil says. “The people we have brought in and are working with have experience across all of the offshore vessel types, except for rigs.
“We are not looking at rig management or rig crewing. That would be outside our expertise, as it is most managers, as it tends to be operator driven.”
CSM Energy will have a separate managing director in Germany, from where it will look primarily at business in the North Sea.
From the Cyprus office, where O’Neil is based, it will target opportunities in the Middle East as well as the growing domestic scene.
“There is an intention to expand this to the Singapore office as opportunities present themselves,” O'Neil adds.
Demand-driven
The move into the offshore sector has been driven by client demand with the plan to expand into the market “in a major way”, the executive stresses.
While the offshore industry is starting to recover from a long downturn initiated by the crash in oil price, O'Neil explains the trend was not a factor in the establishment of CSM Energy.
“I don’t think the downturn in the market has really affected the management side,” he says. “The assets are still there and need to be looked after, cold or warm. I don’t think the managers have suffered that much, while unfortunately the owners and operators have. There has been a consistent need on the management side.”
O’Neil says CSM Energy is starting modestly with a focus on oil and gas and an eye on other opportunities. “We will be moving into this green recycling, wind and other renewables space,” he adds.
He describes green recycling and a new region of business for the group, which will be a “very important area in the future”.
“I have seen this as a lawyer where banks and institutional investors are and have to have regard for hot issues such as environmental friendliness or green DNA for a particular project,” O’Neil explains.
“Having an environmental plan from cradle to grave will be something that concerns them.
“Particularly Norwegian banks are hot on green recycling. When you look at the North Sea, there are a lot of assets there which will need to be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way.
“This is a big issue and a major opportunity and challenge to do it in a controlled and proficient way.”
