Deepwater gas, decommissioning provide OSV opportunities in Australia

MMA Offshore executive general manager of vessel services Stuart Edgar outlined where the next major oil and gas projects will be offshore Australia during an interview at Riviera Maritime Media’s Offshore Support Journal Conference, Asia in Singapore.

He describes the offshore support vessel (OSV) market and forecasts demand will remain high for most vessels and assets.

“The biggest drivers for the recent rise in demand are the large gas projects, and the drilling activity has been more buoyant,” he said.

Some of the biggest projects offshore Australia include Santos’ Barossa gas and Woodside’s Scarborough deepwater gas developments. On the horizon is Santos’ Dorado oil and gas development. All of these integrated developments require drilling rigs, subsea construction ships and OSVs.

There are also plans to decommission platforms and subsea infrastructure in the Bass Strait, while Woodside is already decommissioning the Enfield oilfield Nganhurra floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) project and subsea network, said Mr Edgar.

MMA is supporting Heerema Marine Contractors (HMC) and Woodside’s decommissioning project by providing vessels and logistics teams. Its vessels MMA Monarch, MMA Coral and Mermaid Strait were on site to support lifting and transport of the decommissioned Nganhurra FPSO riser turret mooring, by HMC’s heavy-lift vessel Aegir, from the offshore site to the Australian Marine Complex (AMC).

Once at AMC, the 2,500-tonne structure will be rolled off the barge and more than 95% of the structure will be recycled or reused.

In the long term, Mr Edgar expects there will be demand for OSVs to support shallow water and floating windfarms generating green energy for Australian cities.