With new engines and low- and zero-carbon fuels still on the horizon, OSV owners and charterers will reduce emissions incrementally through battery retrofits, optimised logistics and digitalisation
Reducing carbon emissions from OSV operations will be an incremental journey while new engine technologies and zero-carbon fuels are being developed, according to leading OSV industry executives.
“I’m very excited about our ability to contribute to the energy transition,” Tidewater president and chief executive Quintin Kneen told OSJ during an interview at the Annual Offshore Support Journal Conference in London in June. “What I think will happen for shipowners broadly over the next five to 10 years is going to be more economical use of hydrocarbons. There’s not an alternative today that’s widely available for any global fleet other than a hydrocarbon engine source. And I look forward to working with engine manufacturers to reduce carbon consumption as well as working with our customers.”
“There’s not an alternative today that’s widely available for any global fleet other than a hydrocarbon engine source”
Part of Tidewater’s emissions-reduction efforts, said Mr Kneen, revolve around enhancing its monitoring of fuel efficiency and fuel coming on board, and “by working with our customers and our equipment suppliers to reduce the amount of carbon coming from our vessels.” He said once new prime mover technology is available … we’re going be ready to transition into that technology as well.”
Tipping point on batteries
As the result of advances in battery and energy storage system (ESS) safety and technology, an increasing number of OSVs, ferries, cruises and other vessels are being electrified to lower CO2 and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. There are 466 ships in operation with batteries and another 188 on order in the global fleet, half of those represented by hybrid-electric applications, according to DNV Alternative Fuels Insights. The OSV and ferry sectors have been the market leaders in the earlier adoption of battery technology, which is now being applied to larger ocean-going ships as energy storage capacities increase. Of those in operation in the offshore energy sector, 68 are offshore supply boats and another 15 are offshore vessels. There are another 18 vessels, half of which are supply boats, which are being built or fitted with batteries.
While Norwegian OSV owners Eidesvik, Esvagt, Island Offshore, Siem Offshore, Solstad, and others have been leaders in electrification, the big players in the US — Tidewater, Edison Chouest Offshore, Harvey Gulf International Marine and SEACOR Marine —have all fitted batteries on OSVs in varying degrees.
“In order to win the lottery, you need to buy several tickets”
In his keynote speech at the Annual OSJ Conference, SEACOR Marine president and chief executive John Gellert noted reductions in emissions would have to be accomplished using technologies and operational strategies that could be applied to the existing global OSV fleet. “I think it is very hard to make a case for building a long-lived asset — a 20-year asset — in today’s environment, and also with the unknowns of climate and emissions and where we’re really sure the future is going,” said Mr Gellert. This leads to “sweating the assets — getting the most out of the current fleet and incremental improvements in emissions and efficiencies,” he said.
He made the point that despite the positive outlook for the offshore oil and gas market — Brent crude was selling at US$120 per barrel at the time of the conference — there was little chance to build any new OSVs in the near term.
Noting the general lifecycle of an OSV was about 20 years, Mr Gellert said many of the vessels in the current fleet were built five and in some cases 10 or 15 years ago, when the fuel sources were limited to MGO. “That is changing, but there’s no clear answer of whether it’s hydrogen, ammonia, methanol – there’s a whole bunch of fuel sources, none of which is a clear winner,” he said.
With no clear future fuel emerging for the offshore vessel sector and limited available capital from financial institutions, Mr Gellert said this means focusing on squeezing efficiencies and improvements out of the existing fleet.
“The current fleet will have a long life, but it’s a long life that I see will be evolving,” he said. This evolution, he explained, would focus on “how they will be used and what they burn — incremental improvements to make them more efficient.”
Highlighting his company’s investments in 11 hybrid-electric platform supply vessels (PSVs), Mr Gellert concluded: “Seacor has been a leader in hybrid power, but hybrid power is just an add-on to an existing platform that uses MGO. But that’s only one of the evolutions. There will be plenty of evolutions of what you can burn and how you perform the mission,” he said.
Going further
During a conference panel session titled, “The energy transition and the roadmap to net-zero emissions”, Equinor manager, marine operations Morten Sundt noted that marine logistics is by far the largest emitter of CO2 from Equinor’s supply chain on the Norwegian continental shelf. He said Equinor charters about 40-45 vessels, PSVs, ERRVs and AHTS vessels on a daily basis. Those vessels make about 10,000 offshore calls annually, emitting about 236,000 tonnes of CO2 annually. He said the good news was that there has been a 46% reduction in CO2 emissions as compared with 2005. This has largely been accomplished by optimising logistics planning, engaging crews and chartering vessels with batteries and shore-power connections.
“There’s a whole bunch of fuel sources, none of which is a clear winner”
Ultimately, to accomplish its the ambition of transforming its offshore logistics and emergency preparedness operations to be climate-neutral by 2050, Equinor must go further and it is asking OSV owners to retrofit existing vessels for future fuels.
“We launched a tender to the market asking for large PSVs — 1,000 m2 vessels — with shore power and batteries installed which could get up to a three-year period and a three-year optional period,” said Mr Sundt, “but we are willing to extend that if owners can come up with good ammonia-powered solutions.” He said the tender received a strong response, with a number of ammonia-powered solutions.
“We have started now looking into ammonia, but that’s not necessarily the only solution,” he added. Much like many OSV owners trying to get a clear take on how the future fuel landscape will develop, Mr Sundt voiced his frustration. “It’s a bit like asking what is your favourite football team? You tend to get a lot of different answers and everybody claims they are correct.”
He said his guess was there will not be one fuel servicing all vessels for the future. “We need to look into several things,” he said, adding “in order to win the lottery, you need to buy several tickets. Hopefully you know which lottery you are buying the tickets for. But it’s something we need to develop in partnership with the with the industry.”
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