Speaking at the 2015 Americas Offshore Support Journal Conference, which took place in Houston on 22-23 September 2015, Richard Sanchez, a marine analyst at IHS, provided an insight into some of the challenges facing owners of offshore vessels in the Gulf of Mexico. Mr Sanchez said market conditions are "poor" and noted that the US sector of the Gulf of Mexico is suffering from overcapacity in platform supply vessels (PSVs). "Cold stacking accelerated in the second quarter of 2015," Mr Sanchez told delegates, noting that the market was worse for shallow-water service providers than those specialising in deepwater operations. Levels of drilling activity by jack-up units reached a historic low level in 2015, he explained, a situation that has had a knock-on effect on activity by PSVs supporting jack-ups. Deepwater activity has been more resilient but has come under pressure as oil companies continue to pursue spending cuts. "There is lots of OSV availability everywhere," said Mr Sanchez, warning that owners "should be prepared for more hardship". There would, he said, continue to be a solid base of demand for deepwater work, but aggressive cold stacking would continue.
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