Carbon neutral, fully digitized, highly automated and configured to provide clear operational visibility and the ability to track vessels, cargo, equipment and people around the clock.

This is the vision for the next generation of offshore service vessel (OSV) described in the abs publication “A preview of future OSV designs and operations”which was launched at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC).

Other information indicates that the future OSV will be multifunctional – equipped to serve multiple offshore sectors – with larger accommodation spaces, heavy lifting cranes, helidecks and streamlined hull forms, all designed to perform complex support operations. The operational capabilities of OSVs can scale to support many disparate sectors such as offshore wind, space missions (launch and recoveries), carbon capture (transport), and subsea mining.

Another design concept is for an OSV “mothership” that would be crewed, but also house a fleet of autonomous surface vessels, ROVs and autonomous underwater vehicles used for operations such as repair and maintenance, cargo distribution and underwater inspections.

“ABS is proud to have supported innovations in OSV design, most recently with ‘tri-fuel’ vessels,” said Matt Tremblay, ABS vice president, global offshore, in a prepared statement. “We understand that the evolution of these vessels has only just begun and that an exciting future awaits us: connected, sustainable, increasingly autonomous, multifunctional and highly capable of adapting to serve a variety of use cases. . We are now working with leading OSV designers and operators to realize this potential. »