Environmental performance, innovation, safety and eye-catching offshore vessels were celebrated at Riviera Maritime Media’s Annual Offshore Support Journal Conference, Awards and Exhibition 2022
Industry leadership and technologies were awarded during a gala dinner attended by the top players in the offshore support vessel (OSV) sector in London, UK, 15 June 2022.
Damen Shipyards-built fast supply vessel Aqua Helix won OSJ’s Offshore Energy Vessel of the Year Award 2022 for setting a new industry benchmark through innovative design and efficient operations. Damen accepted the award for the FCS 7011 design vessel, which was built at Antalya, Turkey in 2021. This vessel can carry 600 dwt of cargo and 122 passengers to offshore installations.
Aqua Helix beat shortlisted vessels, LNG dual-fuel platform supply vessel (PSV) Coey Viking, built at Stocznia Gdansk, Poland as a VS 4411 DF design.
ABS-classed 5,900-dwt PSV C Constructor was also shortlisted. It was based on an NA312E CD VE design and built at Tampa Shipyards, US.
In a new award for 2022, Wagenborg Offshore’s Koenigsborg was named Vessel Conversion of the Year for a ground-breaking project, which retrofitted a PSV into a walk-to-work vessel, which also operates as an emergency response and rescue vessel.
Shortlisted conversion projects included the retrofit of Maersk Minder as the world’s first battery-hybrid anchor-handling tug and supply vessel.
Boskalis-owned Bokalift 2 was converted from a 2000-built drillship into a DP2 heavy-lift crane ship and Allseas-owned Hidden Gem was converted in partnership with The Metals Company from a drillship into the first-of-a-kind subsea mining vessel.
DEME was the winner of the Offshore Renewables Award 2022, which was sponsored by Bureau Veritas. This was awarded to DEME-owned vessel Groene Wind as the first service operation vessel to be built at Cemre Shipyard, Turkey, with a small waterplane area twin-hull.
This 2021-built vessel beat DEME’s offshore wind turbine installation vessel Orion with a 5,000-tonne crane, and Chartwell-designed hybrid-powered crew transfer vessel HST Ella, which were both shortlisted.
Maersk Supply Service was awarded V.Group-sponsored Shipowner of the Year Award 2022, with chief operating officer Mark Handin explaining why it was an honour to be recognised by the industry. This award was for a company that has set industry benchmarks in safety, technical excellence and implementing environmental projects. Shortlisted companies were DEME and Tidewater.
Maersk Supply Service won another new award for 2022, recognising a company’s environmental social and governance (ESG). Shortlisted for the ESG Award 2022, sponsored by Caterpillar, were Solstad Offshore and Thome Offshore Management. This award recognised an organisation that has either created or improved an ESG programme and can evidence tangible results.
The International Marine Contractor’s Association (IMCA) won the Vroon Offshore Services-sponsored Safety Award 2022 for its offshore renewables safety standards.
IMCA expanded its Guidelines for Walk to Work (W2W) Operations (IMCA M254). These guidelines were produced to help standardise the way vessels give personnel safe access to offshore structures, both in the wind and oil and gas sectors.
Shortlisted was Lars Thrane’s LT-3100 global maritime distress safety system (GMDSS) terminal and Iridium’s GMDSS services. The LT-3100 terminal was enhanced with new services as it was approved for long range identification services (LRIT) and as a ship security alert system. Lars Thrane upgraded the firmware, enabling LRIT and sending messages to email in the terminal, replacing telex and allowing third-party email and tracking.
OSJ’s popular Innovation of the Year Award 2022 was won by Fugro Orca, a completely uncrewed vessel with the capability to launch and recover a remotely operated vehicle.
Both of these pieces of equipment can be controlled from Fugro’s portable operating centre or one of eight fixed remote centres.
Shortlisted innovations included SailPlan.ai, a vessel emissions monitoring and optimisation tool; OneStep Power’s Equivalent Integrity Protocol and Sea-Kit’s unmanned surface vessel Maxlimer.
Wärtsilä won the Environmental Award 2022 for its W32 methanol fuel-supply system, which enables methanol to be used as a marine fuel, potentially opening up a path to OSV owners towards decarbonised operations.
Capturing the growing industry trend of alternative fuels, DNV’s class notations ‘Fuel Ready’ and ‘Gas Fuelled Ammonia’ were also shortlisted; as was Corvus Energy’s Battery on Board.
The Dynamic Positioning (DP) Award 2022, sponsored by Damen, was won by DNV for its DP Capability Assessment Standard. This software and service helps to specify the performance characteristics of a newbuild precisely to meet expected requirements. DNV said the software supports operators in selecting the right vessel based on mission, location and environmental conditions.
Shortlisted DP innovations include Wärtsilä OPTI-DP Engagement Tool, which was verified by DNV; Sirehna’s remote control DP system and Hexagon Veripos SPAN GNSS+ inertial navigation system (INS).
