Logistics Aspect of Offshore Support Vessels on the West Africa Market

Abstract

With the rapidly increasing global energy needs, offshore oil production has become an attractive source of energy. Supplying offshore oil production installations is a complex logistics problem that hinges on many factors with significant uncertainties. So, it is critical to provide the necessary supplies and services without interruption. In a typical offshore oil production effort, oil companies charter most or all drilling units as well as offshore supply vessels (OSV). The type and duration of charter contract has direct impact on the project budget as vessels market is closely correlated with the world market crude oil price which can have daily significant fluctuations. As the region of West Africa is one of the world’s busiest offshore exploration and oil production markets employing 12% of the world’s fleet, exploring its issues, was taken to study the relations between daily OSV rates and crude oil price. The research results presented in this paper show correlation between OSV daily rates and crude oil price with broader fluctuations in crude oil price.

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