The ABCs of decarbonisation

Faced with the prospect of transitioning from traditional, relatively inexpensive diesel to high-priced low- and zero-carbon fuels, OSV owners need to be thinking about energy savings and energy storage now.

“One of the biggest challenges we have today is the transformation from fossil fuels to renewables. We need something with energy storage to provide a stable base load of energy,” said DNV segment director, OSV and special ships, Arnstein Eknes. “How can we cope without battery systems? We can’t.”

Some 220 offshore vessels are either operating with batteries or will be when they are delivered, making OSVs one of the largest vessel segments with energy storage systems. Globally, some 1,400 vessels of all types have batteries in the global fleet.

Speaking to delegates at the Offshore Support Journal Conference, Asia 2024 in Singapore in September, Mr Eknes implored OSV owners to embrace the ABCs of decarbonisation. “Act now. Start saving energy. Be bold. Find out which solution can help you reduce consumption more. Collaborate. We need to work together to find out which fuel will work for us.” The same fuel will not necessarily be right for everyone. This will depend on how the vessel operates, where it operates and under what conditions. But Mr Eknes said it is crucial for owners to share and collect data collaboratively, in part to help ship designers bring life to future OSVs. And trialling different fuels will also help send signals to fossil energy producers, who know what molecules they are producing today but must decide what to produce tomorrow. “Offshore vessels are ideal testbeds,” he said, noting LNG, ammonia, hydrogen, methanol and biofuels have all been targeted for use.

“Offshore vessels are ideal testbeds”

But Mr Eknes also issued a caveat concerning biofuels. “If you plan on using diesel and blending in biofuel — there is not enough for everyone to comply with IMO 2030,” he said. “If we are going to fix the problem using only biofuel, we are going to need about half of the biofuel produced globally by 2030.” Shipping will be priced out of the market by other transport sectors for the supply.

The way forward

If there is one project that epitomises how decarbonisation can be achieved through collaboration, it is the Maress Summer Campaign.

A dozen leading OSV operators and 303 vessels joined in a 90-day campaign this past summer using data-driven insights to reduce fuel consumption and cut more than 7,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

The award-winning campaign was led by VPS, which supported the participants with Maress Summer Campaign dashboards to track performance, in addition to giving advice on which emission-reducing initiatives to focus on. Some of biggest impacts as regards reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions involve reducing the numbers of engines running, optimising engine load, connecting to shore power and improving battery utilisation. Additionally, many vessels collaborate closely with their charterers, which is key to efficient operations, said VPS.

Through a friendly competition, OSVs compete for the top honours as the most improved of their type, either platform supply vessel (PSV), anchor-handling tug supply (AHTS) vessel or construction support vessel (CSV), and, in the process, gain valuable insights using data to develop best practices for reducing fuel consumption and emissions.

The 2024 winners were Falcon Tide (Most improved PSV) from Tidewater, Normand Sigma (Most improved AHTS) from Solstad Offshore, Rem Power (Most improved CSV) from Rem Offshore and Sanco Swift (Most improved other) from Sanco Shipping. Winners are based on how they perform against their own baseline measurements.