It’s hard to ignore all the memes and posts floating around social media about the conflict in Venezuela and its possible impact on the maritime industry. Most of them are jokes about OSV mariners buying new trucks, houses, boats, you name it. I saw one that said, “Bosun buys new jacked-up truck after hearing he’s making $1,000 a day because of WW3 and the oil boom.” They’re funny at first, but then it gets you thinking. Are we about to see a bunch of mariners jump ship from other companies to chase this “new money” (if it even ends up being real) and make a run for OSVs and oilfield work? Could that shift in mariner demand cause retention issues for tugboat and shipping companies? More money, more problems? Or maybe it’s more like no money, more problems..thoughts?
I suspect Venezuela has enough mariners to cover OSV fleet in their territorial waters, if off-shore boom will boom.
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Looks like most of the oil & gas fields in Venezuela are onshore:
The “offshore fields” are mostly in the shallow and protected Gulf of Maracaibo and serviced by OSVs of the simpler types.
The giant Perla Gas Field is a producing field owned by Repsol and ENI.
It is situated in the Gulf of Venezuela in 60 m. WD:
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Won’t lie. The thought that maybe right now would be the best time for me to get my tankerman’s and start up on tankers again. There’s about to be a large volume of petroleum needing to be moved. Tankers are gonna need people, and people are gonna need tankers.
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