Bourbon Strives for Fuel Consumption Savings
Optimizing the crewboat's fuel consumption - BOURBON promotes best practices and organizes a competition.
With over 3 million people carried in 2011, the transport of personnel is at the forefront of BOURBON’s activities. Following directly on from the initiative launched in Gabon in 2010, from February 1 to May 1, 2012, BOURBON organized a competition for Surfers in Congo, aimed at cutting the hourly fuel consumption of personnel transport vessels operating out of the country.
With this “Responsible Surfer Crew” competition, BOURBON is encouraging best practice among its crews and renewing its cost optimization and sustainable development commitment to clients.
Target to reduce the BOURBON vessels’ fuel consumption by 15 to 30%
Optimizing costs, one of the 4 pillars of the Group’s operational strategy, focuses on standardization of the fleet and efficient management of fuel consumption. By 2015, the aim is to cut the consumption of BOURBON’s fleet of vessels by 15 to 30% depending on the type of vessel – savings which will be passed on to the client in full – based on 3 optimization approaches:
Economical design choices
Two-thirds of the Group’s supply vessels are already equipped with diesel-electric propulsion. By enabling the electric power to be adapted to the needs of the thrusters depending on the type of operation, this equipment leads to savings of 10 to 15% in fuel consumption for offshore oil and gas operations.
Working with clients for better management of consumption
For manœuvres such as port entry and exit, transits, stand-by periods, transferring products and equipment, BOURBON intends to capitalize on the expertise and experience of its crews to work with its clients in order to optimize fuel management for each operation. This collaboration is expected to yield fuel savings of 5 to 10%.
Crews totally committed to responsible conduct
The crews’ professionalism, care, and commitment to quality of service also have an impact on fuel consumption. Strict management of the power, procedures and manœuvres is critical to the “best practices” BOURBON is starting to deploy. These will enable the required services to be delivered to the client at the same time as achieving a reduction in fuel consumption of up to 5%, especially in personnel transport.
A competition to motivate crews
BOURBON has created a “Responsible Surfer Crew” competition to enhance the involvement of the Surfer crews. This initiative goes hand in hand with high-profile “best practice” awareness raising for all the crews, designed to establish reflex actions for savings during operations at the same time while complying with the best safety procedures. Congratulations to the crews of Surfers 1419 and 1807 in Congo, who achieved the best results over the period (lowest average hourly fuel consumption per hour of operation over 3 months).
With these campaigns on optimizing fuel consumption structured into internal competitions and the sharing of “best practice”, the crews of BOURBON’s Surfer fleet are the frontline ambassadors of a win-win strategy which puts cost optimization and client satisfaction at the heart of the Group’s priorities.
