Solid foundations Global Project Services

soLID founDATIons

Global Project Services, based in northern Scotland, is an expert at delivering specialist welding, structural, mechanical and piping services to its multi-sector clients. Established some 20 years ago, the company has gradually increased its international presence. Romana Moares spoke with Managing Director Gavin MacDonald about the company’s unique capabilities, one of its flagship projects and emerging new business opportunities.

Global Project Services, a member of the Global Energy Group, a highly successful, award-winning energy sector service group, operates within the oil and gas industries onshore and offshore. It supports customers in the petrochemical, refinery, power station, nuclear, fabrication and LNG markets from new-build construction projects through to turnarounds and maintenance and upgrade programmes.

“We are a specialist welding contractor, with core services ranging from welding engineering and metallurgy through to high-end specification, and from development of clients’ welding procedures through to actual welding work,” says Gavin MacDonald. “The key capability that distinguishes us from similar companies is our range of specialised welding methods – we work with clients to be able to understand their technical challenges, then develop the welding specifications and look at potential different welding applications that are best suited for the job. The reason why we do this is that we try to challenge conventional welding methods with the aim of maintaining all our quality values while delivering cost-effective solutions for clients,” he says, explaining the company’s approach.

The company applies manual welding processes, semi-automatic as well as fully automatic processes, and mainly works as a subcontractor to EPC companies (Engineering, Procurement and Construction contractors). Over the years, GPS has gathered a wealth of experience from major construction projects throughout the UK, Europe and Scandinavia on developments involving major operators such as Statoil, Shell, Hitachi, Dragon Oil, Petroplus, Lyondell, Esso and Exxon.

“Demand for subcontracting particular services increased during the times when the oil & gas sector collapsed and a lot of large companies struggled to survive, getting rid of service providers in favour of lower-cost alternatives,” says Mr MacDonald. However, the scope of solutions that GPS offers has been applied in numerous projects in other sectors – the company has worked, for example, for the Ministry of Defence (submarines) and on infrastructure development projects (tunnelling), to name just two.

Growth in the north

Mr MacDonald explains that one country that has been in focus in the last few years has been Norway. With its specialised welding services, GPS has supported several construction and maintenance projects as well as modification programmes. “We first entered the Norwegian market in 2004. What got us the work was our welding specialities. Companies recognised that we offered something more.”

He makes no secret of the fact that Norway will remain an important market. With its production of two million barrels of oil per day, it is Europe’s largest oil producer. The decision made at the end of last year to develop the Castberg oil field in the Barents Sea sent an optimistic signal to the oil and gas sector.

“We have always remained very close to the Norwegian market and have had some fantastic experience there, working for major companies within large construction programmes. In the last few years, when the pound was very strong, it was very difficult for a UK company to set up a foreign subsidiary. Although the solutions may have been great, their price was just too high to compete. Whatever one may think of the recent political development from the personal point of view, a

weaker pound has opened up some interesting opportunities for us,” Mr MacDonald admits. “We remain committed to that market and have confidence that the economy will soon pick up. But welding is not the only service we want to offer – as our business has evolved over time, we now have facilities here in the north of Scotland specialising in highend pipe fabrication. This is a significant expansion of our portfolio.”

Decommissioning flagship project

The other end of the construction sector is decommissioning – an area in which GPS has also managed to position itself as a trustworthy partner, supporting a number of projects including the flagship Brent Delta Decommissioning programme. “Global Project Services were contracted by Wood Group PSN / Shell UK Ltd to undertake the principal welding services contract on the decommissioning of the Brent Delta offshore asset in the North Sea in April 2015,” said Mr MacDonald. “Over the 15-month campaign Global Project Services inlaid 25.4km of weld into the structure with a repair rate of just 0.01 per cent and zero LTI (Lost Time Injuries) on a 163,000+ man-hours project.”

The scope of work was extensive and included provision of technical weld engineering, provision of technical support onshore and offshore, development of offshore simulation welding trials in the form of a test bed set-up operation within the company’s Nigg fabrication shop facility, provision of all welding plant, tools and equipment as well as of heat treatment services. GPS also completed structural steelwork welding of K Prep 60mm wall thickness cruciform sections, sea fastening, grillage and cellar deck module strengthening.

“The project was completed 180+km north-east of the Shetland Islands in an ultra-harsh operating environment and to the ultimate satisfaction of our client and asset operator,” said Mr MacDonald. “As a consequence of our performance on the Brent Delta, Global Project Services were further engaged by Wood / Shell UK Ltd to undertake the Brent Bravo topside decommissioning programme in April 2017. This is currently an active project for our company.”

Solid values

He emphasises that delivering work to the highest quality standards and ensuring safe working environments are central to business operations. “We focus on production, low-repair weld and high-end quality, trying to maintain top standards. In this context I would like to stress that our most valued asset is our people. They are fundamental, the core of the business, they have made us what we are today. And I’m proud to say that we were able to navigate through the difficult times without losing a single one of our people.

“We follow solid company values – we are an environmentally clean company that fully complies with all applicable legislation, following the ethical code and best practices. That is important and certainly helped us win some of the recent prestigious projects.”

He confirms that the company will further strive to reposition itself with a view to capitalising on new market opportunities. “We want to enhance our reputation not only as a welding but also pipeline and subsea work contractor. As such, we are going to seek ways of further strengthening our position in export markets, primarily, but not only, Norway.” n