Bourbon sees higher vessel rates

It expects more demand and higher rates for vessels this year and in 2013

Bourbon SA, owner of the biggest fleet of supply and crew ships for the oil industry, expects improved demand and higher rates for vessels this year and the next due to more offshore projects.

PARIS: Bourbon SA, owner of the biggest fleet of supply and crew ships for the oil industry, expects improved demand and higher rates for vessels this year and the next as explorers develop offshore projects in Asia and West Africa.

“If oil prices remain high enough for investment, we will see growth in 2012 and 2013.

“We could see vessel utilisation rates in 2013 at levels last seen in 2007,” said chief executive officer Christian Lefevre.

Lefevre, took the CEO position a year ago, aims to return the Parisbased company to profit this year while expanding the fleet by about a third by 2015.

Bourbon bolstered its building

We could see vessel utilisation rates in 2013 at levels last seen in 2007. — CHRISTIAN LEFEVRE

programme last year, even amid over capacity in the global market and delays by oil companies in starting new offshore projects, on anticipation explorers would choose more modern vessels.

The company declined 33% in Paris trading last year on concern the European debt crisis would hurt demand and after a first-half loss because of weakness in the dollar.

The shares have advanced for the past three months as an improving outlook for the US economy and the threat of conflict in the Middle East helped push oil prices back above UUS$100 a barrel.

Bourbon’s average vessel utilisation rate was 83.8% in the first nine months, compared with 79.5% the prior year and 89% for the supply fleet in 2009. Deepwater vessel utilisation rates will “easily rise by 5% and rates also improved in shallow waters, according to Lefevre.

The company, with about a quarter of West Africa’s market, had suffered from slumping oil prices and delays in development of offshore projects, reversing a boom as crude peaked in 2008.

“The years 2009 and 2010 were hard; there has been improvement in 2011, which we would have liked to have been faster, but we are very optimistic for the coming year,” said Lefevre, who had experience in West Africa working as an officer at Compagnie Chambon, a Marseille port-towing company bought by Bourbon in 1992.

The company serviced offshore platforms in West Africa operated by Elf-aquitaine SA, later bought by Total SA.

“We used to go up the Zaire River at night in supply boats to get drilling water for the oil platforms,” Lefevre said.

Its clients include Exxon Mobil Corp, Chevron Corp, BP Plc and Total SA and oil-services companies such as CGG Veritas, Saipem SPA and Technip SA. Vessels in the subsea division, whose average daily rental rates reached US$33,822 in the third quarter, are used to test oil wells.

It has moved into offshore wind turbine installations, winning contracts to lay underwater cables off England, Germany and Portugal.

The company also plans to bid for orders for energy projects offshore Indonesia and Malaysia as part of its Asia expansion and possible new developments off the coasts of Angola and Ghana, Lefevre said in the interview.

In contrast, Bourbon is moving cautiously in the expanding Brazilian market. – Bloomberg