Edison Chouest, a Louisiana-based provider of offshore vessels to the international oil and gas industry, is planning to construct more than 40 new offshore vessels, New Orleans City Business has reported.
According to the news web site, the vessels will be deployed in the Gulf of Mexico, the Arctic and Brazil.
The vessels will be built at the company’s four U.S. yards North American Shipbuilding, LaShip, Gulf Ship, Tampa Ship and also at the yard in Brazil, Navship.
Under the construction plans, the company plans to build seventeen Platform Supply Vessels to meet growing industry demand.
According to a market research report issued recently, the offshore support vessel market in 2013 is valued at $69.3 billion. The figure is estimated to reach $91,2 billion by 2018.
The key factors which are driving growth of the market are global oil and gas demand, growing exploration and production activities and an increase in the number of offshore platforms. Offshore support vessel is a moderately developing market with no other substitutes currently available which makes it the backbone of the offshore industry. Consequently, the market is expected to continue its steady growth in the future.