What are Offshore Vessels?

Offshore vessels are ships that specifically serve operational purposes such as oil exploration and construction work at the high seas. There are a variety of offshore vessels, which not only help in exploration and drilling of oil but also for providing necessary supplies to the excavation and construction units located at the high seas.

Offshore ships also provide the transiting and relieving of crewing personnel to and from the high seas’ operational arenas, as and when necessitated.

As mentioned, above, the denotation of offshore vessels is a collective reference and as such includes a wide array of vessels employed in the high seas sector. They can be mainly classified into the following main groups:

  • Oil Exploration and Drilling Vessels
  • Offshore Support Vessels
  • Offshore Production Vessels
  • Construction/Special Purpose Vessels

Each of this category comprise of a variety of vessels.

Oil Exploration and Drilling Vessels

Oil exploration vessels, as the name suggests, help in exploration and drilling of oil at high seas. The main types of exploration vessels are:

Offshore Support Vessels

Certain offshore vessels provide the necessary manpower and technical reinforcement required so that the operational processes in the high seas continue smoothly and without any undesired interruptions. Such vessels are called as ‘offshore support vessels.’

Offshore supply vessels transport the required structural components to the designated high seas sector along with providing assistance to supply freight as well. The constructional aspect of these vessels can be purpose-built to suit the operational demands.

Some of the main types of offshore support vessels are:

Offshore Production Vessels

Offshore production vessels refer to those vessels that help in the production processes in the drilling units in the high seas. FPSOs (Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading) can be enumerated as an example of these types of offshore ships. Main types of these vessels are:

Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO)

Single Point Anchor Reservoir (SPAR) platform

Shuttle Tankers

Tension Leg Platform (TLP)

Offshore Construction Vessel

Ships that primarily aid in the construction of various high seas structures are known as offshore construction vessels.

Other offshore vessels’  of these type also include those that provide anchorage and tugging assistance and those kinds of ships that help in the positioning of deep sub-water cable and piping lines.

Main types are:

In addition to these, those variances of ships that provide aid in case of any emergencies occurring in the high seas and those types of vessels that undertake researching and analysing activities in the high seas are also included under the offshore vessels’ classification.

The ever-growing need to explore and suitably harness the potentialities that the high seas offer has led to a huge growth in the need and demand for offshore ships. Coupled with the advantages of technological researching and suitably resulting developments, the present-day fleet of offshore vessels across the world is one that portrays the huge strides taken in the maritime sector.

Some famous offshore vessels are:

North Sea Giant – World’s Tallest Offshore Vessel

Neptune – Powerful Jack-up Vessel

Type o – Semi-submersible heavy transport vessel (SSHTV)

Bourbon Front Platform supply vessel

Solitaire – The Largest Pipe Laying Vessel in the World

References: gulfmark, bumiarmada

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