Digital by Design ABS Helps Blaze the Digitization Path that is Reshaping Offshore Energy

The offshore energy industry is in the midst of a new investment cycle, driven by major developments in South America, renewed demand for energy security and an increasing reliance on digital technologies to improve asset performance. For Matt Tremblay, Senior Vice President, Global Offshore at the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), the opportunities are significant—but so are the challenges.

Speaking with Offshore Engineer at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Tremblay described an industry that is “very busy, very successful,” with a robust pipeline of projects, particularly in Brazil and Guyana, which together account for roughly half of current greenfield offshore activity.

But growth is being tempered by supply chain constraints.

“We’re starting to get to a point where the supply chain challenges are really starting to almost limit the capacity of project execution,” Tremblay said, noting that lead times for major rotating equipment can now stretch from 40 to 60 months, complicating planning for multi-billion-dollar developments.

While new floating production systems and offshore infrastructure continue to dominate headlines, Tremblay believes one of the industry’s biggest opportunities lies in something less visible: digitalization.

Image courtesy ABS

One of the big areas that ABS as a class society is involved with is the digitization of what we call asset integrity management,” he explained. “Having it in a digital format allows me to access it and query it and utilize it a lot more efficiently and a lot faster.”

- Matthew Tremblay,
SVP, Global Offshore, ABS

Turning Data into Operational Value

According to Tremblay, the greatest near-term impact of digital technologies is not necessarily in design, but in maintenance and asset integrity management.

“One of the big areas that ABS as a class society is involved with is the digitization of what we call asset integrity management,” he explained. “Having it in a digital format allows me to access it and query it and utilize it a lot more efficiently and a lot faster.”

For an industry that once relied on blueprints and three-ring binders, the shift to digital records and online databases is transforming how operators monitor offshore structures and critical machinery. ABS is working to combine inspection records with operational data generated by onboard equipment, enabling more informed maintenance decisions and laying the groundwork for predictive maintenance.

The organization is also investing in natural language processing tools capable of ingesting handwritten maintenance logs from decades past and converting them into searchable digital datasets.

“That’s one of the places that ABS has spent a lot of time,” Tremblay said, “trying to gain insights into predictive maintenance and asset condition management from that old data we have.”

Offshore Digitalization Reaches Adolescence

Asked to characterize the maturity of digitalization in offshore energy, Tremblay offered an analogy. “I wouldn’t say we’re in the infancy anymore. I’d say we’re in the adolescence,” he said. “We at least know what we don’t know.”

The next challenge, he noted, is improving data quality and consistency so operators can extract meaningful insights. Dirty or fragmented datasets have long limited the value of digital initiatives, but advances in AI and machine learning are helping clean and organize legacy information for future use.

Remote technologies are also becoming mainstream. ABS is increasingly supporting remote inspections using drones, cameras and equipment-generated data rather than requiring surveyors to physically board offshore assets.

“The best thing that we’re doing from a safety perspective on that remote front is we’re removing people from dangerous situations,” Tremblay said. “Every time a human being climbs into a confined space, that’s a risk. If I can put a drone in that cargo tank instead of a human, that’s a win.”

Beyond inspections, remote operations centers have the potential to monitor and support multiple offshore assets from shore, reducing offshore staffing while improving operational efficiency.

Enabling Innovation

As one of the world’s leading classification societies, ABS sees its role extending beyond compliance into enabling innovation safely.

Rather than relying solely on prescriptive rules, Tremblay said ABS is increasingly adopting performance-based standards that can accommodate emerging technologies without stifling development.

“The hardest thing to legislate or create prescriptive rules for is innovation because I don’t know how it’s going to break yet,” he said. “Instead of writing prescriptive standards, we’re writing goal-based standards.”

Artificial intelligence is another area where ABS is investing heavily. One application under development uses large language models to help engineers navigate the organization’s roughly 30,000 pages of technical rules and statutory requirements.

Finally, as offshore assets become more connected, cybersecurity has emerged as a critical component of operational safety. Tremblay emphasized that ABS’s expertise spans both information technology and operational technology, helping operators secure not just data but the systems controlling vessels, drilling rigs and production facilities.

“The connectivity that continues to grow creates more and more touchpoints for the internet,” he said. “ABS is very well positioned… both from a writing rules perspective, but as well from providing consultative advice.”

For Tremblay, the future of offshore energy will be shaped as much by intelligent use of data as by steel and subsea infrastructure. And for ABS, helping the industry navigate that digital transition safely may be one of its most important missions yet.