New industry collaboration leads the way with vessel sharing scheme in the Central and Northern Sea region.

Operating out of Peterson’s Waterloo Quay facility in Aberdeen the vessel pool, which launched on 7 July, currently has two weekly sailings serving four assets; Maersk Oil’s Gryphon and Global Producer III (GPIII) FPSOs, Dana’s Triton FPSO and the FPF-1 of which Petrofac is Duty Holder.

This collaborative approach to supplying the offshore energy industry sees Peterson acting as an independent facilitator as well as vessel charterer. The CNNS pool builds on Peterson’s experience and success managing vessel sharing in the Southern North Sea for more than two decades.

Peterson’s technology and resource sharing culture place the company in the ideal position to facilitate this collaboration. A suite of tools and advanced algorithms developed by Peterson, ensure efficient voyage planning and accurate transparent allocation of costs to each company ensuring all the voyage costs are allocated correctly and fairly.

The ‘Steering Group’ allows elected representatives from each of the partners to come together to set the high-level pooling strategy and ensure each operator is fully and equally represented to ensure their needs can be properly planned into the port schedule. There is also an operations committee to manage routine operations.

The CNNS pool members are already experiencing many benefits including maximising efficiency through combining volumes, distance and capacity, increased flexibility in schedules, minimising exposure to the environment by dramatically reducing sailing distances and vessels while delivering costs savings. Vessel sharing also allows for a uniform approach delivered through one standard level agreement, this means maximised safety through standardised processes. Quality is standardised through the groups specific marine operational manual, all of these features mean the CNNS Pool Fleet will be an influencer on the industry.

Chris Coull, Regional Director for Peterson, comments: “We are delighted to be working with like-minded, visionary companies who see the value in sharing resources and are pleased to be acting as pool facilitators and enabling the principle of a CNNS pool to come to reality.”

“We are looking forward to expanding our offering and have built our model in a way that we can easily expand as the market demand increases to include more pool partners. Other companies are watching the progress of this initiative with great interest and we trust we will welcome more forward-thinking organisations on board in the future.”

Les Mills, Corporate Logistics Superintendent, Petrofac, added: “Reducing the cost of operations in the UKCS is a collective industry responsibility and Petrofac is absolutely committed to playing its part. We’re very excited to be part of this group bringing new levels of collaboration to the North Sea.

“Reducing the number of vessel voyages has many advantages. Fewer vessel movements minimises safety risks, reduces emissions and lowers costs for the vessel charterer and share partners. As established and new entrant operators seek to extend field life in the North Sea, logistics sharing provides an effective way to meet operating requirements, while reducing costs when compared to dedicated resources.”

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/offshore-and-subsea/08012018/new-industry-collaboration-leads-the-way-with-vessel-sharing-scheme-in-the-central-and-northern-north-sea-region/