Norwegian owners tackle decarbonisation challenges 

Olympic Subsea has ordered construction service operations vessels with emissions-reduction technology, with the first two leaving the shipyard in 2024. Olympic Boreas and Olympic Notos have the Ulstein twin X-stern hullform, variable speed diesel-electric propulsion and large battery energy storage systems. 

Olympic Subsea chief executive and president Stig Remøy said decarbonisation is the biggest challenge facing the offshore industry as owners need to make choices for new assets that could be operating for more than 20 years. 

He said owners can support the “transition in energy over next 10-20 years” and need to select whether to invest in new vessels or upgrade existing vessels. 

“Owners need to look over the horizon of over more than five years. There is always something rising up we do not see. The market will be sky-high for the next three years, but then what?” Owners need to have a long-term view of the market to make decarbonisation decisions.

North Sea Shipping chief executive Geir Klepsvik agreed the biggest challenges in the next five years would be to “achieve zero emissions” by converting existing vessels to operate on alternative fuels and energy sources or build new ships.

“Zero-emissions vessels will be expensive,” said Mr Klepsvik. “It will be difficult to meet these challenges with the technology and the existing fleet we have today.”

It is becoming even harder to decarbonise the fleet through newbuildings as shipyard prices are rising and supply chain delivery is lengthening. “With newbuilds, the lead times are long, so it takes time for new capacity to enter the market,” said Mr Klepsvik.

“There are finance costs and longer lead times. China is 30% cheaper than Turkey or Europe to build, but [owners] need to evaluate many elements, not just costs.”

Riviera’s Offshore Support Journal Subsea Conference was held in London, UK, on 3 February 2025