The Fleet Steering Committee met on 2 and 20 June 2022 under the chairmanship of the MESR.
The issue of fuel cost inflation and its impact on business in 2022 and 2023 was discussed. Initial steps have been taken.
By 2022
The sharp rise in energy costs, combined with high expenditure linked to sanitary measures on ships, has led to a budget impasse that is too large to be sustainable within the initial budget. The Steering Committee approved the cancellation of the Diadem mission initially planned for the end of 2022 on L'Atalante. However, with the help of the MESR, additional funding is being sought to enable L'Atalante to transit to the French West Indies at the end of the year, and then to plan Diadem. Postponement of this campaign to 2023 is therefore possible, but not guaranteed.
For the same financial reasons, the Fleet Steering Committee has decided to cancel all P2 coastal missions from July 2022. This concerns the Gabès, Urb Impact and EMSO KM3Net campaigns on L'Europe, and FIT and STEP on Téthys.
Concerning 2023
Based on the current cost of diesel, the Oceanographic Fleet Division estimates that the cost of fuel will at least double. For the fleet as a whole, this item would rise from €7m to €14m, out of a total operating budget of around €78m. With fixed costs (salaries, basic freight, maintenance of vessels and equipment, etc.) representing around €50m, such an increase in fuel costs cannot be borne without a reduction in activity.
The MESR has already been informed and the members of the Steering Committee collectively support a request for a re-evaluation of the fleet budget in order to limit the impact of this increase. However, all the members of the steering committee agreed that, given the budget impasse created by the increase in energy costs, it would not be possible to cover all the overruns. It was therefore collectively decided that :
Savings will be sought by reducing the speed of transits,
In the event that these savings are not sufficient, the campaigns with the greatest financial impact that the Oceanographic Fleet Directorate was planning to carry out in 2023 will be the first to be affected. Their programming will be postponed until 2024 at the earliest.
No P2 campaigns will be scheduled in 2023, either offshore or inshore.
The Fleet Steering Committee will meet again on 19 July. Between now and that date, the organisations using the French Oceanographic Fleet are asked to identify their scientific priorities, so that they can determine, if necessary, a group of campaigns that should be postponed.
The 2023 programme cannot be finalised before the summer, and will have to wait until September at the earliest for realistic assumptions on fuel costs and inflation, as well as the level of subsidies from the MESR, to become clearer.
In view of this situation, the Steering Committee has decided to wait until 20 July 2022 to issue the CNFH's 2024 call for projects. This time is required to examine all the elements needed to make a decision on this call for projects (in-depth examination of its terms and any limitations) at the Fleet Steering Committee meeting on 19 July. The closing date for the call for projects is 28 September 2022.
Olivier LEFORT
Director of the French Oceanographic Fleet
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