Astro Offshore, the marine platform of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) on Tuesday announced that it had entered into a contract with Oceaneering International Inc, a US-based engineering and applied technology company, to pursue specialised offshore and subsea opportunities in Europe.
This tie-up marks a major push for APSEZ into ultra-deepwater operations and international markets, which, for India's ports giant, is a major step into the unknown.
The significance of the partnership lies in the nature of the business that the APSEZ plans to enter into: ultra-deepwater marine services, which is a sea change from anything related to the world of port operations it is familiar with.
This is because subsea activities involve specialised underwater engineering for offshore energy and marine infrastructure projects.
This includes laying cables, pipeline installation, underwater construction, inspection, maintenance, and intervention in deepwater environments, for which you need advanced vessels, remotely operated vehicle (ROV) systems, and advanced technical knowledge.
In the partnership between APSEZ and the US-based firm, it is the latter that brings years of expertise in deepwater engineering and ROV systems.
How will this benefit Adani Ports?
The role of the APSEZ in this partnership is the fleet that it has strategically built over the years since it purchased a majority stake in Astro Offshore back in August 2024.
By acquiring an 80 per cent stake worth $185 million (all-cash) in the renowned Offshore Support Vessel (OSV) operator—which already had 26 vessels to its name at the time—India's largest ports and logistics company had paved a path to owning Astro Offshore's impressive fleet.
Together with its 26-vessel fleet and Tier-1 clientele, the new company was expected to help APSEZ transition from serving primarily Indian ports to becoming one of the world's biggest integrated maritime firms.
Since then, Astro Offshore's fleet has grown steadily to more than 50 vessels, of which the most recent acquisition was the Energy Savanah (IMO: 9777307).
Measuring nearly 100m long, the Norwegian-flagged vessel is a modern 2021-built DP2 multipurpose support vessel (MPSV) that will be renamed Astro Atlas.
Dynamic Positioning Class 2 (DP2) vessels are those with positioning systems that have backup options to enable vessels to maintain their positions at sea, which is very important for offshore work.
Equipped with a 150-tonne subsea Active Heave Compensation (AHC) crane, a 25T secondary crane, a moonpool, and accommodation for up to 100 people, the ship is designed to support a wide range of offshore operations.
AHC is a technology that helps subsea cranes compensate for tidal motion at sea.
The Astro Atlas acquisition also comes just a few months after the APSEZ firm collectively acquired five vessels in one of its biggest deals since Adani Ports took the helm.
The five-vessel deal included four Platform Supply Vessels (PSVs), of which two were diesel-electric, and one MPSV—also diesel-electric, with a subsea crane heftier (160T) than that of the Astro Atlas.
However, the Astro Atlas is longer than that MPSV, and can also operate at depths exceeding 3,000m.
"As part of its long-term roadmap, the company is targeting a 200-vessel fleet along with marine revenue of Rs 6,000 crore and planned capex of Rs 13,000 crore by FY 2030-31," APSEZ said in a statement.
Why Europe?
Or rather, why not Europe? The location that APSEZ is eyeing is also extremely important, primarily because it expands the company's clientele beyond Astro Offshore's reach, into a region that is going through a rapid boom in offshore wind energy, subsea transmission networks, and underwater energy infrastructure.
For Adani Ports, which majorly depends on revenue from its Indian port operations—despite operating a handful of ports outside the country too—entry into offshore maritime services, especially for a demanding market like Europe, means a whole new international revenue stream altogether.
Europe also offers access to higher-value contracts, and by taking on more of these with Astro Offshore, APSEZ will effectively be jumping onto the renewable-energy-infrastructure train, which is not some compliance fad, but a long-term paradigm shift.