Bourbon to Cut Crews and Sell 41 Ships

On Tuesday, leading OSV operator Bourbon announced that it is doubling down on restructuring to adjust to market overcapacity. Bourbon told investors that utilization of the world's offshore fleet is at just 55 percent, even less than in 2015 and 2016, and a third of the world's OSVs are stacked. These challenging conditions have had an impact on Bourbon's bottom line, and the firm's preliminary financial statements indicate a net loss in the range of $740 million for 2017, despite its efforts to control costs. 

Since the downturn began in 2014, Bourbon has brought its opex down by 30 percent and reduced its capex by nearly 90 percent, eliminating its newbuilding program and slashing its maintenance costs. To adjust further, Bourbon intends to reduce opex by another 25 percent. A large part of this cut would come through a four-person-per-vessel manning reduction, which would allow for at least several hundred fewer licensed mariner positions if implemented across a planned "smart fleet."

Bourbon hopes to replace one officer per OSV with automated dynamic positioning technology, one junior officer per vessel through "onboard process simplification," and one more officer and one AB through the use of condition-based, predictive maintenance. The DP automation technology is under development in partnership with a leading marine electronics firm, and it is already in testing aboard the Bourbon Explorer 508. Ultimately, Bourbon envisages these developments as stepping stones towards vessel autonomy.