From Calm Seas to Monsoon Extremes:

Offshore access in Asia Pacific

The core challenge is clear:

How to control costs and make the most of each weather window, even when the seas and winds are working against you.

Every year, offshore teams across Asia Pacific face a familiar challenge. Calm seas last for months, but high waves, strong winds and monsoons prevent access to offshore rigs or turbines. Projects are delayed and productivity decreases as personnel cannot reach their destination. Rough and unpredictable conditions push back schedules and delay important maintenance and construction work. Waiting for perfect weather to transfer personnel is not just expensive. It determines when and where work can be carried out.

Yet critical work cannot wait for perfect conditions.

Offshore projects are complex, capital-intensive and time sensitive. Even short delays drive up costs and push schedules off track. Ensuring safe and reliable personnel transfers is essential to keep operations moving and meet project deadlines.

Offshore challenges in Asia Pacific

Offshore operations across tropical Asia have traditionally relied on ropes, baskets or basic gangways to move personnel to their worksites and back. Once the weather turns, the smaller vessels commonly found in the region struggle to adapt. Even in calm periods, this can make offshore worksites temporarily inaccessible.

By having to wait for ideal conditions to transfer personnel to an offshore installation, transit times are slow and inefficient. Transferring personnel individually or in small batches means less hands-on-tool time. Helicopters offer an alternative, and are frequently used in Australia, but they are costly and less effective for frequent crew rotations.

Though the impact of the monsoons differs from location to location and season to season, traditional transfer methods limit how much work can be done. Even helicopters can struggle in the face of strong winds, heavy rain and slippery helidecks. Despite careful planning, harsh or unpredictable weather leaves operators with limited options.

Motion compensated gangways: The value of uptime

Motion compensated gangways bridge the gap by keeping projects on schedule even when the seas are less forgiving. Commonly known as Walk to Work (W2W) solutions, these systems compensate for vessel motions in real time. They provide a stable pathway for personnel to walk to and from an offshore structure, vessel, or turbine. Even in harsh weather, they allow operations to continue, minimising the number of days that projects have to wait on weather.

By extending weather windows, W2W broadens when and where work can be safely carried out. High workability keeps projects on schedule. It unlocks hidden uptime that directly translates into more hands-on-tool time, and lower operational cost. A stable connection also means that crew rotations are fast paced because personnel can comfortably walk to and from their worksites. Reduced transit times per transferee yield significant gains in productivity, especially for crew rotations during long-term projects.

Ampelmann has developed a range of gangways to solve distinct operational challenges. From smaller electric gangways to larger multi-functional systems, the company’s solutions can be fitted onto variety of different vessel types and sizes. These systems also enable quick evacuation and can be used to transfer personnel to floating objects like turbines, FPSOs or other vessels. By converting any vessel into a W2W solution they optimise vessel and crew allocation.

For good reasons, W2W solutions have emerged as a safer and more reliable alternative to traditional access methods. Even though gangway systems are gaining traction in Asia Pacific, many operators still rely on traditional access methods. The full potential of W2W remains untapped. Leveraging these systems to their full extent will unlock significant opportunities for efficiency, for uptime and for growth.

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Opportunities for efficiency: Why gangways matter when the seas are calm

Across the tropical zone, operations are typically planned when seas appear calm. Nevertheless, spikes in wave heights and strong gusts of winds are frequent enough to disrupt or slow down operations. Waiting for weather is not just expensive. As delays build-up, they can spill over into the monsoon season, forcing work to pause until calmer conditions return.

In practice, continuous access brings simple but significant efficiency gains. Ampelmann’s long-standing client Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP), for example, has used motion compensated gangways for nearly 15 years. Fast, predictable transit times allow multiple crew rotations per day. This has allowed BSP to safely move personnel to, from and in between offshore assets, streamlining their offshore operations.

Both the company’s compact electric L-type and innovative A-type see frequent use here. As these systems compensate for sea states between 2 and 3.5m significant wave height (Hs), they are ideal for most conditions across Asia Pacific. By reducing waiting times and enabling personnel and cargo to move quickly, these systems can ensure offshore operations can continue without interruptions.

130 projects in Asia Pacific

3 million

crew members, technicians and engineers

Though technical specifications are important, the performance of W2W solutions is greatly enhanced through local support networks. The company’s team includes dedicated project managers, maintenance engineers, business developers, operators and warehouse managers. With offices and warehouses in Brunei and Singapore, communication lines are short. Unexpected challenges can be resolved 24/7 through the Bruneian Operations Control Centre (OCC). Together, they ensure Ampelmann’s systems have more than 99% technical uptime.

Across eight countries and 130 projects in Asia Pacific, over three million crew members, technicians and engineers have already safely reached their offshore worksites and back. By streamlining logistics in the calmer months and maintaining fast, continuous access, operators can achieve consistent uptime and be fully ready before the monsoon arrives. While it might seem that high-tech gangways are a luxury in the calmer months of the year, they play a crucial role in maintaining efficiency, reducing downtime, and ensuring operations stay on schedule year-round.

Opportunities for uptime: Offshore access during the monsoon

As the monsoons approach, rough seas and strong winds begin to dominate the operational landscape. Time becomes of the essence as operators face narrowing weather windows. Heavy wind and rain can endanger personnel and create unsafe conditions on offshore platforms. In the worst cases, slippery surfaces, destabilised cargo cranes, and other challenges can prevent work from being carried out at all.

But not all projects can wait for perfect weather.

With W2W solutions, others do not have to. Spillovers from the previous season, as well as critical and long-term maintenance, shutdowns, and time-sensitive projects, can continue well into monsoon season. There is a common misconception that gangways cannot perform in these conditions, but Ampelmann has been facilitating offshore operations during the monsoons for years.

12,000

personnel transfers

73 projects days

Opportunities for growth: Offshore wind and innovation

These challenges take on a new urgency as Asia Pacific’s offshore wind market moves from planning to construction, and from emergence to maturation. Wind farms require frequent, reliable, year-round access both during and after construction. Requiring multiple connections per day, even short interruptions can delay installation or restrict maintenance in a sector where every gain in efficiency matters.
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Before the end of the decade, the first fixed and floating turbines will go online in Japan, South Korea, Australia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. In Taiwan, the market is already maturing. Here, W2W solutions have been employed for over half a decade. Both Ampelmann’s A and E-types see frequent use due to their high workability. Like elsewhere in the region, sea states in western Taiwan swing rapidly between lows and highs, making high-performance 6DOF gangways especially cost-effective.

The versatility of the cargo lifting E1000, in particular, has made it a premier choice amongst vessel owners and operators in both Taiwan and the world. Because of its high performance and dual function as a crane with a lifting capacity of one tonne the system provides additional flexibility in a wide range of conditions. This also makes it particularly effective for work on floating wind farms that are set to emerge across East and Southeast Asia. The hexapod provides a stable connection even when both the turbine and vessel are moving in different directions at different speeds.

Clearly, innovation and collaboration will remain critical as the region’s offshore energy sector expands and diversifies. New electric solutions with small environmental footprints, gangways and drones for cargo operations, as well as specific solutions for C/SOVs and Mini SOVs will help to keep the ambitious regional energy targets on track.

Both the O&G and the wind market in Asia Pacific can benefit especially from gangway systems with compact footprints. New fully electric gangway designs are currently in development for the relatively smaller vessels commonly found in the region. With short mobilisation times, these new systems offer cost-effective solutions for the continuous transfer of personnel at different heights.

Nevertheless, a wider adoption of vessels that can hold position with Dynamic Positioning (DP) will be beneficial for operations during the monsoons or harsh weather. Though DP is not required in the calmer periods, rising sea states can cause non-DP vessels to drift too far from platforms or turbines to maintain a stable connection. Better alignment between vessel owners, operators, and project developers will help expand workable operational windows during the monsoons.

The weather will always shape offshore operations in Asia Pacific, but with Ampelmann’s motion compensated gangways, it no longer needs to dictate them. Through increased safety and high workability, even the most challenging conditions become opportunities for growth, uptime and efficiency.

By bridging calm periods and monsoon extremes, W2W solutions are set to define the future of safe, efficient, and reliable offshore operations across Asia Pacific.