The brand-new subsea support vessel VOS Sugar operated by Vroon Offshore Services. (Photograph: PAS Publicaties)
DUTCH OFFSHORE SUPPORT VESSEL OPERATORS CONTINUE TO UPGRADE THEIR FLEET by Paul Schaap, PAS Publicaties
Headed by Vroon Offshore Services, a whole series of new offshore support vessels were commissioned in 2016, a programme that is set to continue into 2017. Dutch offshore support vessel operators are keen to take every opportunity to operate worldwide in the oil and gas industry, and in the rapidly emerging offshore wind energy sector, cost effectively, with a fleet of modern ships. Dutch engineering firms have repeatedly succeeded in designing and marketing new ship types for both sectors. Just as in previous years, Vroon Offshore Services, operator of more than 100 offshore support vessels, once again launched more new ships than anyone else, in 2016, as part of a programme of fleet expansion and fleet renewal. From bases in Den Helder in the Netherlands, Aberdeen in Scotland, Genoa in Italy and Singapore in the Far East, the company provides services for businesses operating in the offshore oil and gas industry and wind energy sector. Offices were recently also opened in Mozambique. In 2016, 22
NETHERLANDS SUPPLIERS CATALOGUE 2017
the Fujian yard in China handed over two state-of-the-art subsea support vessels, christened the VOS Sugar and VOS Star. Remarkably enough, at one point, all of the operator’s subsea support vessels were simultaneously deployed serving the offshore wind energy sector. Following her arrival in the Netherlands, the VOS Sugar also immediately set to work in this sector, in the North Sea, at the Bard Offshore 1 Wind Farm. To help carry out this work, the ship’s equipment included an Ampelmann W2W system. Also in 2016,
