BOURBON
Benchmarking repair yards across three continents for an offshore fleet
About BOURBON
Bourbon is one of the world's leading marine and offshore services groups, operating a large fleet of offshore supply vessels (OSVs), crew boats and subsea support vessels for the energy industry. Its vessels work in some of the most demanding operating regions in the world — West Africa, the Mediterranean and South America — far away from the traditional repair hubs of Northern Europe and Asia.
The challenge
An offshore fleet does not dock where the textbooks say. Bourbon's superintendents must find, vet and compare repair yards close to where the vessels actually operate — regions where yard information is scattered, capability claims are hard to verify, and a wrong choice means a workboat off hire far from its contract. Comparing docking options across three continents by e-mail and phone calls does not scale to a fleet of this size.
How they use TrustedDocks
Bourbon's technical superintendents use TrustedDocks as their daily reference for the global repair-yard landscape. Before a tender goes out, they compare candidate yards side by side: dock and slipway dimensions against the vessel's measurements, verified facility details, and each yard's actual docking history — which vessel types a yard has really handled, not just what its brochure says.
The drydock forecasts help the fleet team look ahead: which vessels are approaching their survey windows, and which yards in the operating region realistically fit them. That turns docking preparation from a scramble into a planned comparison, started months before the vessel is due.
PSC intelligence adds an independent quality signal. A yard whose recent customers keep failing port-state inspections is a different risk than one whose vessels sail clean — and that difference is visible on the platform before the tender is awarded.
The benefits
Faster yard shortlists
A vetted shortlist of regional repair yards in minutes instead of weeks of enquiry e-mails — with dock dimensions checked against the actual vessel.
Stronger tender negotiations
Knowing a yard's real docking history and the alternatives nearby changes the conversation with the yard's commercial team.
Less downtime risk
Docking windows are planned against forecast survey dates, not discovered when the certificate is already close to expiry.
One reference for three continents
West Africa, the Mediterranean and South America in one consistent data model, instead of three regional address books.
TrustedDocks features in this story
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