Digitalisation holds the key to optimising offshore vessel operations and reducing expenses by almost a third, as examples from OSV owners show
Offshore support vessel (OSV) owners can save up to 30% using internet-of-things (IoT) technology to optimise energy, maintenance, voyages and administration.
A technical session at Rivera Maritime Media’s Asian Offshore Support Journal Conference in Singapore on 17 September offered four examples of owners achieving cost savings and contract awards.
Three of the examples of vessel owners saving money came during a presentation by Inmarsat sector development director for offshore Audra Drablos.
Ms Drablos said Bourbon Offshore had secured a contract because of its investment in IoT.
“Bourbon won a contract with a fuel-incentive bonus,” she explained. “It agreed on a lower dayrate and in exchange for meeting fuel targets it would get a bonus.”
In short, Bourbon was using IoT to gain a competitive edge.
Her second example came from the area of remote support, where one offshore vessel operator “reduced costs and optimised maintenance budgets by 10-20%” according to Ms Drablos, by using remote monitoring and condition maintenance on large dredgers.
“[The operator] was able to show charterers they had greater availability and reliability,” she added.
The third example of savings came from vessel route optimisation, where an OSV owner was able to cut costs during vessel transits of 2-3 weeks.
“This was achieved by correlating data on trim, power and fuel consumption to optimise voyages and reduce costs by 20-30%,” said Ms Drablos.
In a fourth example, UniSea chief executive Kurt Roar Vilhelmsen introduced Unisea permit-to-work digital module, which helps fleet managers visualise jobs on vessels across the fleet.
Separately, Kongsberg Maritime vice president for digital systems Jan Sigurd Sørensen described how OSV operators can use Vessel Insight and the Kognifai cloud as a platform for IoT adoption within the fleet without multiple installation costs and onboard hardware expenses.
And finally, Olympic Subsea vice president for QHSE Tonny Sørdal explained how his team saved costs on administration and auditing.
The company replaced onboard paper libraries with Unisea and its checklist module. Mr Sørdal explained how each vessel was saving S$390 (US$285) and 4.5 days per year, adding up to a significant amount over a large fleet.
There are also savings in time and costs from changing auditing processes, he said. “Almost 60% of audits can be done on the office side, and we are saving on printing [costs by going digital],” Mr Sørdal said.
“We have tablets on the bridge with a digital bookshelf that holds all of the checklists.”
Checklists are updated remotely and automatically, he said, and managers can check instantly whether the lists have been completed by crew. “There is no more cheating on checklists as I can check them from the office, or anywhere with wifi, at anytime,” said Mr Sørdal.
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