I wrote something recently for one of my content customers about the economics of offshore support vessels (OSVs). These are the specialized ships that provide a range of support services to offshore oil and gas drill platforms. The bottom line is that OSVs are a lousy investment idea. If given an opportunity to invest in such a vessel or in any corporate entity whose main line of business involves owning or operation such vessels: run the other way! There are too many of these darned things and (though I wasn't allowed to put it this bluntly for the commercial cite I was writing for), the oil majors take advantage of the fact that there are so many of them. They pocket the savings. Understanding the oversupply problem requires taking into consideration both cold stacked and warm stacked OSVs. To review: a warm stacked vessel is left at port, but continues in operating condition. It can readily be reactivated. Indeed, a warm stacked vessel continues to have a ...
