The vessels market has begun a robust recovery, supported by improving macroeconomic conditions and a buoyant oil price, according to the latest report from analyst Infield Systems.

The sector “has been through a period of significant stress following the global financial crisis and Macondo blowout, which significantly impacted offshore developments and oil companies,” it said. However, as offshore activity increases, demand is expected to show strong and consecutive growth up to 2017, with forecast vessel days increasing by 32% compared to the period 2008-2012.

According to the fourth edition of Infield’s ‘Global Perspectives Specialist Vessels Market Report to 2017’, North
America is expected to require the greatest demand over the period of analysis, driven primarily by the Inspection Repair and Maintenance (IRM) market. The region is, however, expected to decrease in market share due to rapid growth in emerging regions and deterioration of shallow water activity due to the booming shale industry.

Despite this, the regional deep and ultra-deepwater market is expected to remain buoyant and will account for an increasing proportion of demand towards the close of the period, it added.

Europe and Asia are expected to be key regions, with growth trends expected across the period. Europe is driven primarily by trunk and control line installation, which is expected to drive a bow-wave of activity in addition to significant demand for SURF installation. Asia is also expected to witness significant demand for line install, but is characterised by activity associated with installation of fixed piled platforms, reflecting the region’s shallow water characteristics.

Africa is flagged up as the likely key growth region up to 2017, according to Infield. Demand will be driven by aggressive exploitation of reserves across the predominantly deepwater regions of Nigeria and Angola, in addition to diversification of demand in the shallow water basins offshore Egypt and Libya. Australasia is also expected to witness strong growth despite accounting for only a small proportion of demand, driven by large scale LNG developments off the western coast of Australia.

In response to robust growth, a number of vessel operators are undertaking fleet renewal programmes to capitalise upon the growing offshore market and, as a result, vessel supply is expected to increase by 45% across the period of analysis. With increasing activity in deep and remote waters, newbuilds are shifting towards high specification assets that are capable of operating in such environments. Despite the majority of demand still remaining in shallow waters, operators are ‘future proofing’ their vessels, in line with the growth trend in deepwater regions, such as Africa and Latin America. Due to the influx of such vessels, on top of the incumbent shallow water fleet, the supply market is increasingly polarised with respect to capability between the high and low ends of supply.

The significant global fleet of low specification dated assets is pushing the whole market into a broad state of oversupply across all of the key sectors, added Infield.