ShipBuilding
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his time last year, the U.S. Gulf of Mexico was still suffering a hang-
over from the deepwater drilling moratorium, with much of the talk in the offshore energy market centering around the painstakingly slow pace of the issuance of new drilling permits by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). With the cleanup from the Macondo Well blowout finished earlier in the year and no new drilling permits being issued, operators were left to reposition their offshore support boats outside of the Gulf to generate revenue and keep their boats working. Shipyards along the Gulf that were dependent on servicing, maintaining and building support boats were left high and dry. What a difference a year makes. Now there are now at least 85 offshore service vessels under construction or firm contract at U.S. shipyards—everything from crewboats and dive support vessels to deepwater offshore support vessels and platform supply vessels. There’s also two significant projects to stretch 11 OSVs for deepwater.
24 MARINE LOG nOVEMBER 2012
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