Offshore transport

Introduction

One of the most crucial requirements for companies in the offshore oil & gas industry or the offshore wind industry is the ability to transport personnel offshore. These companies often have to travel their employees multiple times per day between the vessel and the offshore wind turbine/platform. Fortunately, there are a few companies that offer offshore access with a differentiated system that enables to transfer personnel even in the harshest weather conditions like fog and storms. In this article, the most important providers of offshore access systems will be described.

Offshore Solutions

Offshore solutions BV is a company based in the Netherlands that provides offshore access since 2006. Their system enables fast and safe transport to offshore destinations such as wind mills and oil platforms. Their system is one of the best of its sorts and has a reliability of approximately 90%. This entails that the system will be available for transfer 90% of the time, even in adverse conditions.

Ampelmann

Ampelmann is a company similar to Offshore Solutions. It was established by former students of the TU Delft in The Netherlands. However, it has to be noted that the Ampelmann system is more or less superior to the system Offshore Solutions provides. The Ampelmann system has 95% reliability and furthermore requires less time to install. This is a very important characteristic in the offshore oil & gas industry, where time is literally money.

Uptime Alliance

Uptime Alliance is the newest player in the offshore access industry. There is not much known about this company. Up till now they have done no operations. It is expected that they will publish more information on their website soon, and they will be available for offshore transport operations.

Conclusion

The industry of differentiated offshore access providers roughly exists of three players. It has to be noted that Ampelmann has the greatest competitive advantage, because of the high reliability of the system (offshore risks) and furthermore it is the fastest in installation.