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GulfMark Offshore Inc. is one of the world’s leading offshore marine service providers to companies involved in offshore exploration and the production of oil and natural gas. Originally established in 1990 when the Lehman Brothers invested $17 million in the acquisition of six ships, the company has expanded significantly, today operating 57 vessels. Its ships, including platform supply vessels (PSVs), and anchor handling, towing and supply vessels (AHTS), transport drilling materials, supplies and personnel to offshore facilities, and move and position drilling structures. The company continuously aims to enhance its position as a premier supplier of offshore marine services in international markets by developing and maintaining a large, technologically sophisticated fleet.
David Kenwright, managing director of Gulf Offshore North Sea Ltd, the Group’s largest subsidiary, explains: “The company started in 1990 by acquiring some second-hand ships, and it has continually expanded over the following years through the acquisition of both companies and ships. Today we operate a total of 57 vessels worldwide and we have offices in Aberdeen, Liverpool, Norway, South America and our corporate offices in Houston, US. Also, we have a small South East Asian fleet and an office in Singapore. We are currently operating in many areas around the world, our North Sea fleet comprises vessels based in the UK and Norway, we also have one ship working in Australia, two in India, two in the Arabian Gulf, two in the Black Sea, two in Egypt and one in West Africa. However, the focus of the company is predominantly on North Sea operations, which is currently our biggest operating area, and the source of the majority of our income. Despite this, we are presently looking at strengthening our position in other areas, and we have just embarked upon a new building programme that will predominantly focus on expanding the South-east Asian fleet significantly.”
Gulf Offshore frequently works with the oil majors and boasts a client portfolio that includes BP, Shell and Exxon. However, perhaps more importantly the company has been heavily involved with new, smaller companies launching themselves into the North Sea market in particular: The new players in the North Sea have been very good clients for us because they are quite active and have a very high demand for tonnage,” says David.
“There has been an increase in activity in offshore operations in the North Sea recently, and although we are restricted to some extent by what the oil prices are and the fiscal regime, I anticipate that the smaller oil companies that have recently entered the market are going to be the most active,” David continues. “They have a much lower cost overhead and are more focused on increasing the production from mature fields, whilst looking to tie in small accumulations and develop small fields where they can. I believe that supporting these companies in the North Sea will be an important role for us in the future. The company offers its customers an extensive range of offshore support vessels with a variety of superior operating characteristics and capabilities: “Historically the PSVs have always been our most successful line and have provided the most consistent levels of profit,” David explains. “However, as part of our new building programme in 2001 we ordered three new anchor handling vessels, and these have become more popular with customers. They undertake tows for rigs, anchor handling, laying and recovering, and supply duties, so they are essentially multi-function vessels capable of supporting drilling operations worldwide, in deep waters.”
The company operates 32 large PSVs that serve drilling and production facilities, and support offshore construction and maintenance work. They are differentiated from other offshore support vessels by their cargo handling capabilities, particularly their large capacity and versatility. Anchor handling, towing and supply vessels (AHTS), are used to set anchors for drilling rigs and tow mobile drilling rigs and equipment from one location to another. They are characterised by shorter decks and special equipment such as towing winches, and can be used in the additional role of offshore supply operations. Together with this the company offers construction support vessels, standby rescue vessels, crew-boats, and utility ships.
David explains that safety concerns are paramount in the company’s philosophy: “It is critical to maintain a close working relationship with our customers, but most importantly, safety performance is a major concern as nobody wants any risk in their operations. We take all safety concerns very seriously as we want our vessels operating safely and efficiently, and we want our clients to feel comfortable when working with our crews and ships. We are continuously doing everything possible to make sure that our vessels are safely and efficiently run, and as far as we are concerned this does not have a price tag. In the North Sea we have five safety coaches who give courses on board a vessel on risk assessments and general safety aspects. They sail on the ships regularly moving around the whole fleet giving short talks and lectures on health and safety issues. We were the first company in the North Sea to employ them and the concept has rapidly spread to a number of other companies. The emphasis has always been on changing attitudes and we realised that you cannot do this by writing procedures and creating rules, you have to be proactive and change the mindset of the workers.
“We also undertake command assessments, where a senior master will monitor bridge resource management, communications, deck crew operations, on board other company vessels while they are at sea,” David continues. “We have learned a lot from these assessments. The most important thing that we try to achieve is the uniformity of operating procedures and standards throughout the fleet. As a result of our findings we now ensure that before anyone takes command of a vessel they complete a bridge resource management course and simulator courses. To date, we have been successful in improving our safety performance.” Future plans for the company include a steady expansion of its fleet, and the possibility of operating in new areas: “We will certainly be building, and acquiring new ships in the future,” comments David. “I think that the formula that we have applied so far has been reasonably successful, we have tried to follow a steady and sustainable growth pattern. We have a number of multi-role type vessels that undertake dynamic positioning, ROV support and sub-sea construction duties, and I think that we may see more of these in the future, but the biggest focus is going to be on improving our existing designs and tonnage. We have just ordered two new diesel-electric vessels for North Sea operations that are very fuel-efficient, have a lot of inbuilt redundancy and high capacity, and are environmentally friendly, so this will be a great improvement for our customers.
“Together with this we are looking at becoming more international as a company,” he continues. “We have just created a joint venture in Angola, another in Nigeria where we are working in conjunction with a local company, we are operating in Egypt, and I believe that West Africa holds much promise for us in the future. The other area that will be interesting in the future is Russia, particularly the Barents Sea and the associated waters. Ideally we would look to work with a small local company for the best results. I believe that for us to expand in the future it will be vital to create strong strategic alliances with other companies. We will follow a path of continuous growth for the future based around the types of tonnage that we currently operate. We have a new $260 million building programme that will end in 2008, but we cannot compartmentalise ourselves. We may find that there are other opportunities in other sectors of the shipping industry that we can move into, but it is just important that we continue to work hard and try to always look at things from our clients perspective to make sure they are happy.”
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