The Hindu Business Line : Great Eastern Shipping eyes offshore services

GREAT Eastern Shipping is planning to increase its focus on offshore services, with drilling activities in India, led by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), likely to increase significantly in the coming months.

The company, which at present has an offshore fleet of 31 vessels, including eight anchor handling tug supply vessels, six supply vessels, 11 tugs and two drilling units, has finalised plans to procure four anchor handling vessels and two PSVs (Platform Supply Vessels) in the current fiscal.

``Orders for the six vessels have already been placed,'' said a senior official of the company.

The company's increased focus on the offshore sector comes in the wake of the proposed Sagar Samridhi project that envisages an investment of Rs 17,500 crore during the next three years. Further, out of the four blocks that have been identified for exploration, two are deepwater blocks, while another 19 smaller pools are likely to be privatised. Also, ONGC has proposed to commission five platforms in the current fiscal, which is significant, as normally only two platforms are commissioned on an average in a year.

In fact, according to the company's global market survey, there are definite indications that leading operators are going in for renewing their fleets, either by buying recent tonnage or placing new building orders. For example, Tidewater has just announced orders for eight vessels to be built in the Far East, while in Europe; Maersk Supply Service has ordered two multi-purpose anchor handling tug supply vessels.

Further, Hornbeck Offshore Services, a unit of Hornbeck-Leevac Marine Services, has embarked on a new building programme to increase the size of its seven-vessel fleet.