LOG778 Offshore Energy Logistics Planning (Spring 2025)

Nowadays Norway is one of the largest offshore energy producers in the world, with increasing potential in offshore wind energy production. The offshore energy production and distribution industry makes up a significant proportion of the Norwegian economy, and, on the other hand, wind energy is an incumbent that will increase demand for job positions in the coming years.

Energy logistics offshore is rather complex and challenging because energy production facilities are located far from shore and difficult to access, they have limited area for operations, and all logistics activities offshore are strongly influenced by unpredictable weather conditions. The focus of energy logistics offshore is thus on effective and reliable service of offshore facilities, safety, and environment.

The course gives first an outline of worldwide energy production offshore including wind, oil, and gas, the offshore oil and gas fields and offshore wind farms development projects in Norway and Europe. Offshore energy logistics networks on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) and their developments are studied, focusing on the infrastructure, the actors, and the main upstream offshore logistics activities.

The main focus of the course will be on the development of decision support tools for offshore energy upstream logistics planning problems such as installation of offshore energy production units, cargo transportation and aerial transportation of offshore personnel to offshore installations, maintenance of offshore production units, onshore base operations, and design of offshore emergency response system. The special focus will be on safety and zero emissions in offshore energy logistics planning.

This course provides knowledge of real-life offshore energy logistics planning problems and cases and aims to develop skills that will be highly relevant for jobs in the logistics departments of various companies involved in offshore energy logistics value chains and logistics networks.

After completing this course, the candidates will achieve:

Knowledge

• of historical development and trends in offshore wind production, current advantages and disadvantages, offshore wind farms examples, offshore wind turbine components, structures, and characteristics, logistical challenges when designing, onshore base requirements, sizing, and characteristics, planning installation and performing maintenance of offshore wind farms, as well as logistical resources used.
• of typical logistics planning problems arising during the offshore wind farm design phase, including cabling layout, location base selection, and base sizing.
• the students will know about logistics resource planning, supplier selection, production management and material requirements planning, process scheduling during the offshore wind farm installation phase, logistics planning problems for offshore wind farm operations, and maintenance required on strategic, tactical, and operational levels.
• the students will also know about offshore oil and gas supply chains, historical development of offshore oil and gas logistics infrastructure at the Norwegian Continental Shelf, upstream part of offshore oil and gas supply chain, and various offshore upstream logistics activities.
• the students will have knowledge of typical logistics planning problems in offshore oil and gas supply chain, such as cargo and personnel transportation planning from supply bases to offshore installations by vessels and helicopters, planning of emergency response system and rescue resources positioning, on the examples of offshore operating energy companies, and which decision support tools they use.

Skills

• study and analyze the existing offshore energy supply chains, their actors and interconnections, the parts of the supply chains, and the types of offshore energy logistics activities.
• based on physical logistical infrastructures find location for offshore energy logistical facilities and design the offshore energy logistics networks.
• understand various contexts for efficient mobilization of the flows within the industry’s infrastructures and networks.
• estimate the need for logistical resources in all parts of the offshore supply chains.
• identify the functional types of logistics operations on strategical, tactical, and operational levels.
• formulate offshore logistics planning problems as optimization problems.
• implement formulations of offshore logistics planning problems with standard modeling and simulation software to obtain solutions.
• interpret/visualize solutions to evaluate logistics plans and perform analysis of logistics systems’ performance.
• reflect on the interplay between the various logistical issues and challenges.

General competencies

• be able to communicate problem settings in the offshore energy industry.
• have an understanding of the offshore energy industry from the logistical viewpoint of effective and efficient planning and coordination of logistical activities.

• Mandatory coursework: Assignment(s)
• Courseworks given: 5
• Courseworks required: 5
• Grouping: Individual or groups
• Presence: Not required
• Kommentar: All assignemnts must be submitted to be admitted to final exam.

• Form of assessment: Oral school assessment
• Proportion: 100 %
• Duration: -
• Grouping: Individual
• Grading scale: Letter (A - F)
• Support material: All printed and written aids.