Vessel sharing agreements have seen a record rise over the recent period due to a demand for increased collaboration in the oil and gas industry, according to Peterson, the UK-based energy logistics provider who served as the facilitator in number of recent deals.
From the beginning of 2016, there were seven shares arranged between the operators in the central and Northern North Sea, as Peterson reports. All the shares were facilitated by Peterson with the help of the Aberdeen Marine Logistics Alliance (AMLA), a vessel shared initiative designed to maximize efficiency and reduce marine logistics costs and environmental impact.
Despite challenging market conditions, the combining financial benefit for companies participating in ALMA shares was more than USD 1.4 million during 2014 and 2015, together with a reduction in CO2 emissions of approx. 800 tonnes, Peterson noted.
“As was recently highlighted by Oil & Gas UK and others, there is an urgent need for widespread collaboration in the North Sea. We share this view and believe significant opportunities exist within the supply chain to do just that through increased vessel sharing. We believe the recent unprecedented number of vessel shares indicates that the industry is not only listening to the calls for greater collaboration but responding positively,” Loek Sakkers, Peterson’s Director of projects , says.
A formal pool for scheduled cargo movements is also to be established by Peterson and UKCS operators, allowing vessels to be used by different operators each day. The main aim of the scheduled cargo movements is to achieve maximum fleet utilization and optimize vessel use per individual operator to reduce overall idle time.