- Top Tip Series: share the cost of ballast water treatment
Do you have a fleet of vessels that operate in the same area? Maybe Platform Supply Vessels operating in the same region servicing the offshore oil & gas industry, or Offshore Support Vessels supporting an offshore wind farm?
Whether OSVs, PSVs or similar vessel type if they are operating regionally, then there is a likelihood that they will operate in and out of the same 2 or 3 ports closest to the operation. These ports may be in the same country or split between a few neighbouring countries close to the operation.
If these ports are in the same country surrounded by the same body of water, then treating ballast water before discharge will not be necessary. However, if these ports are in different countries, then treatment will be required. So let’s say your vessel takes ballast water on in Den Heldert then, after returning from offshore, it needs to de-ballast this water in Aberdeen, then treatment before discharge will be required. The good news is, the cost of treatment for your regional fleet does not have to be a costly or laborious exercise, with considerable savings on offer depending on the location of your treatment system. Whilst one option is to fit units on each vessel, you could instead install a port based single stage treatment system in each of the 2 or 3 ports where your vessels operate, enabling your full fleet to utilise the shared assets when required. Given this, the bigger your fleet, the bigger the savings.
Limited ballast water pipe retrofit work will be required on each vessel to allow the port system to connect to the vessel’s ballast water line, however these costs coupled with the costs of 2 or 3 port based single stage treatment systems is significantly lower than the cost of having to retrofit every vessel in your regional fleet with a ballast water treatment system. Given this, the only real question remaining, is what ports would you like to select?