Vessel users and providers gather for TradeWinds Offshore Marine conference.

Both sides of the business table will be sitting together at the TradeWinds Offshore Marine conference this year, offering a rare opportunity to hear offshore vessel-providers and vessel-users exchange views on the sector in an open discussion.

Among the presenters are high-profile charterers such as Statoil, Ross Offshore, Subsea 7, Technip and Ocean Installer, while owners including Deep Sea Supply, GC Rieber Shipping and Farstad will be on hand as panelists to take part in a lively debate.

The TradeWinds Offshore Marine conference has shaped up into an all-star list of some of the industry’s most important charterers, with a heavy focus on vessels throughout the event. 

Giving the oil company perspective, Helge Såtendal of Statoil and Karl Kristian Hasselø of Ross Offshore will lead a session on ‘Charterers Requirements’.  Their comments and observations will be discussed by a highly competent panel including Svein Leon Aure, Senior Chartering Manager of Farstad Shipping, Irene Waage Basili, CEO of GC Rieber Shipping and Bjørgulf Lea Jr, Chartering Manager at broker UNO – all under the watchful eye of session moderator John J Gallagher, Vice President for Offshore at class society ABS.

The conference is set to examine the opportunities for OSV owners from the 3 A’s – Asia, Africa and the Arctic.  A keynote address from Jarand Rystad of Rystad energy will set the scene for the rest of the days discussions, including vessel complexity, regional and global charter rates, protectionism, and issues arising from the sensitive environmental scene in the far north.

Recognising the important role of subsea operations, the organizers have included a session dedicated to subsea solutions, seeking to understand what's driving the booming subsea market.  Delegates will hear from a strong subsea panel with presentations from Pierre Kieffer, Operations Director of Technip Norge, Steinar Riise CEO of Ocean Installer and Tore Ulstein, of the Ulstein Group, as well as a representative from Subea 7.  Helping delegates to interpret the nuances will be a panel of leading brokers, Petter Dyring of Fearnley Offshore Supply and Per Erdal of RS Platou.

Concluding the day, financial heavyweights including Anders E Eide of Arctic Securities and Geir Sjurseth of DVB will join a lively panel to draw the strings together and examine the tough questions behind capital investment, vessel age restrictions and whether the market should take a breather before ordering more ships.

No doubt the market chat and networking will continue long after the moderator wraps up thanks to Wartsila who are sponsoring the closing drinks reception.Other sponsors include ABS, Wilhelmsen Ship Management and UNO Offshore.