IRO News 05

MARCH 2009

NEWSletter 05 ASSOCIATION OF DUTCH SUPPLIERS IN THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY

This is the fifth issue of IRO NEWSletter. This newsletter is published to inform our international relations about the news in the Dutch upstream oil and gas industry and the most noticeable activities of our members.

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Focus on AncoferWaldram Steelplates

Dutch oil and gas suppliers keep investing Despite these uncertain times, the decision of the Dutch oil and gas industry suppliers to specialise and concentrate efforts on innovation appears to be paying off, as orders continue to flow in even though 2009 is proving a difficult year for many. Vessel cancellations are unfortunately becoming rather common-place in several sectors but this is not the case among the Dutch suppliers as IRO members continue to invest in fleet renewal.

Several firms have ordered new vessels - a move that shows that there is more confidence in the offshore, energy and project markets.

New heavy lift vessels Amsterdam-based BigLift Shipping, part of the Spliethoff group, announced that it has ordered five more heavy lift vessels, demonstrating its confidence in the future of the project and heavy lift market. Being built at Ohua shipyard near Shanghai, the five 17,500 dwt sister vessels are due for delivery between mid and late 2010. They are all 1A ice class and have two cranes with a capacity of 400 tonnes each and one with a 120-tonne capacity. The BigLift vessels are designed to cope with high deck loads for heavy cargoes and if visibility from the wheelhouse is hindered by large deck loads, the vessels can be manoeuvred from a second command station.

Additional accommodation, a class-room and training bridge, is also incorporated for 10 cadets who will work on board as part of their maritime education. BigLift also has two multi-purpose heavy lift vessels on order from Larsen & Toubro of India. These vessels are due to be delivered end-2009 and early 2010.

Oleg Strashnov Another company that will be boosting the Dutch heavy lift fleet is marine transportation and construction services firm, Seaway Heavy Lifting. In April last year, Seaway Heavy Lifting saw the keel-laying ceremony of its remarkable new vessel,

Offshore Access System built by Offshore Solutions.

the Oleg Strashnov at IHC Merwede’s Krimpen Shipyard in the Netherlands. This heavy lift vessel has a very big crane capacity of 5,000 tonnes, making it the largest mono hull heavy lift vessel in the world and it will be the largest ship ever built by IHC Merwede. Already, the vessel has found employment as Shell U.K. Limited has contracted Seaway Heavy Lifting to carry out the offshore lift and transportation activities for the decommissioning of six platforms from the Indefatigable (Inde) gas field in the Southern North Sea. Currently, the interim agreement is limited to preparatory work but negotiations on the final contract are ongoing.

Execution of the final contract remains subject to a Project Final Investment Decision by Shell. Seaway Heavy Lifting worked with GustoMSC to create the design for this extraordinary vessel. Oleg Strashnov incorporates a patented dual draught, single hull design and is unusual because it combines a fast speed of 14 knots with very high lifting capacity. The crane has an outreach of 32 m in full revolving mode. Pipelaying capabilities can also be added to the vessel in the future.

New survey vessel Noordhoek Survey was yet another Dutch firm showing its faith in the oil and gas sector. Continuing its ambitious growth strategy, Noordhoek has ordered another ROV Survey dedicated offshore vessel. Scheduled to arrive in the first quarter of 2010, the DPII ROV Survey Offshore Support Vessel, will become Noordhoek’s third vessel in operation and the first ROV Survey dedicated offshore vessel. Adding the new survey vessel will give considerable operational flexibility and it will also increase the comfort of working conditions for operational staff. Being built at the Dutch shipyard De Hoop, the vessel will be 62 m long and equipped with Dynamic Positioning Grade 2 (DPII). With diesel electric drive, the new vessel will also have a moon pool and a 25-tonne offshore crane. Forty crew can be comfortably accommodated on the vessel that will meet the latest environmental criteria, while ensuring acoustically

For the updated membership list, please visit our website: www.iro.nl & www.iro-noc.nl IRO P.O. Box 7261, 2701 AG Zoetermeer, The Netherlands T +31 79 3411981 F +31 79 3419764 E info@iro.nl I www.iro.nl

quiet operations at survey speeds. Inspection, repair, maintenance, hydrography, geotechnical investigation and analogue/digital geophysical surveys will be the main work of the new ship. Set to enhance Noordhoek’s survey capabilities, the vessel brings the latest technology in pipeline and cable inspection, seabed mapping and sampling and construction support to the market. Noordhoek currently operates the DPII DSV Noordhoek Singapore in the North Sea and it has another vessel, the DPII Saturation DSV under construction and due for delivery in the fourth quarter 2009.

As well as the new orders on their way, IRO members have seen some recent new arrivals.

New supply vessels

Artist’s impression of the Oleg Strashnov built by IHC Merwede.

(Illustration: Seaway Heavy Lifting)

IRO Export promotion Every year IRO coordinates Dutch group participations at successful international oil and gas exhibitions throughout the world. IRO also organises trade missions and matchmaking programmes. Below you find an overview of the export promotional events planned for 2009 so far.

Exhibitions OTC 2009 Houston, USA, 4 - 7 May Gastech 2009 Abu Dhabi, VAE, 25 - 28 May Oil & Gas Asia Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 10 - 12 June Brasil Offshore Macaé, Brasil, 16 - 19 June Offshore Europe Aberdeen, UK, 8 - 11 September Europort Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 3 - 6 November

Trade missions Iran Teheran, 20 - 24 April Mexico Villahermosa & Ciudad del Carmen, 10 - 13 May Norway Stavanger & Tromsø, 28 September - 1 October Please visit www.iro.nl for up-to-date information.

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Vroon Offshore Services inaugurated the “Base Express”, a second Damen Platform Supply Vessel (PSV 7216). Joining the previously delivered “Pool Express”, the vessel was built by Damen in Romania. Wasting no time, the vessel has already found employment in the Southern North Sea (SNS) Pool. With a fleet of 14 vessels, the SNS pool is under the management of Peterson SBS and provides services to eight oil companies active in the North Sea oil and gas exploration and production market.

The PSV 7216 is a diesel electric, DP 1, double-bow vessel, driven with stern azimuth thrusters. At more than 3,200 dwt, Base Express has a deck space of 600 sq m and has a speed of over 13 knots. Tank arrangements have been made to allow the ship to carry potable and drill water, fuel, glycol, methanol and cement. Dutch oil and gas suppliers have also been working hard ensuring there is plenty of work for its expanding fleet.

Expanding offshore activities dredging companies The two Dutch dredging giants both had good news and won contracts for their expanding offshore and energy businesses.

Royal Boskalis Westminster acquired three oil and gas-related contracts for projects in Europe and the Middle East, worth around E100m. Two contracts are linked to the “Nord Stream” project which involves the construction of two 1,220 km gas pipelines from Russia to Northern Germany through the Baltic Sea. Boskalis will prepare the seabed for laying the pipelines and execute the shore approach of the pipelines in Germany.

The project should be completed in 2010. The third contract comprises the infrastructure, including the shore approach, for an oil pipeline from the Safaniyah offshore field to the mainland of Saudi Arabia. This project will be executed during 2009 for Saudi Aramco.

Van Oord Offshore signed the Subcontract for the Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline Project (ADCOP) - Offshore Pipeline and Facility. ADCOP will originate from Habshan in Abu Dhabi and terminate in Fujairah and has been designed to transport 1.5 million barrels of crude oil per day. Van Oord’s works include the offshore installation of three pipelines with a total length of around 13 km and three Single Point Mooring Systems. Work will take place in 2009 and should be completed by the second quarter of 2010.

IRO NEWSletter MARCH 2009

Pipelaying and stonedumping activities

Innovation is rewarding

Continuing the pipe-laying theme, SAS Gouda and SAS Winches have been awarded a contract from Grup Servicci Petroliere (GSP) of Romania for the supply of a complete Pipe Lay System, including the eight-point Mooring System.The new pipelay barge will be equipped with 2 x 30mt Pipe Tensioning Systems, including a 60mt A&R Winch and the Pipe Handling equipment for handling the pipe joints on deck. The barge will have an 8 x 100mt electrical Mooring Winch System, which will be integrated with the Pipe Tensioning System.

SAS Winches has been contracted to design, manufacture and supply the complete Mooring System. The delivery of the complete package is scheduled for the end of 2009. SAS has also been awarded a contract from ZPMC of China for the design and supply of four complete Pipe Handling Systems.

With innovation being a key theme at the heart of the Dutch supply industry, a recent award to Offshore Solutions is no different. Offshore Solutions has been issued a Letter of Award from Qatar Shell for the provision of its unique product, the “Offshore Access System”. The Offshore Access System (OAS) facilitates the safe transfer of personnel from a vessel to an offshore installation. It will be used for the Pearl Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) project being built in Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar.

Due to be delivered in the second quarter 2010, the OAS is a heave compensated, telescopic gangway designed to connect and disconnect in 2.5 m Hs sea states. Offshore Solutions said the award was a direct result of the success of the first OAS leased by Shell. This has been working on a daily basis in the Southern North Sea for over two and a half years.

Meanwhile, Huisman, a specialist in lifting, drilling and subsea solutions has been awarded two new contracts for the design, build and commissioning of two stone-dumping systems from Tideway, a subsidiary of Belgium’s DEME and from Royal Boskalis Westminster. These fast, highly-automated systems are the first capable of accurately dumping stones at up to a 2,000 m draught. Delivery is planned for the second half of 2010 and the start of 2011.

Realising that these challenging times will pass, IRO members recognise that this is a long-term industry. They are continuing to invest in upgrading and modernising their fleets with a succession of newbuilds due to join in the coming years. Dutch suppliers have chosen to stay at the quality, specialist end of the market and this means they are still being chosen for projects even when times are more difficult. Nevertheless, they are still looking ahead to a positive future n

Focus on AncoferWaldram Steelplates

Unique product range and experience Since 2004, in total 20 million euro have been invested in the new AncoferWaldram Steelplates plant in Oosterhout.

AncoferWaldram is a supplier of hot-rolled carbon steel plates and profiling work, who have developed into a market leading business. Our company is now ideally situated by the waterside, explained managing director Joost van Dijk, and 90 percent of all steel we require is now delivered by ship.

AncoferWaldram Steelplates, AWS for short, was established in 2003 following a merger between Ancofer Nederland based in Oosterhout and Waldram-staal from Zaltbommel.

“Both companies were set up in the early nineteen seventies, and both were subsidiaries of the Dillinger Hütte Group based in Dillingen, in Germany”, commented Joost van Dijk.

“We opened up our new plant in Oosterhout in 2004. The commercial site occupies 30,000 square metres, and houses a modern hall with a roofed-in area of 20,000 square metres.

One half of the hall is used for our (flame) cutting business, while the other half serves as a storage area for the stock of steel plate. We always have some 25,000 tonnes of quarto plate on stock, on site.” Last year, AWS had a second hall built on the site, which was officially opened in January 2009.

“Part of this new hall is used for processing steel, including the bevelling of edge welds; another section is the store for just-in-time delivery of profiling work and a third part is used for the dispatch of export orders.” Although the company does

© IRO 2009

Managing Director Joost van Dijk.

enjoy excellent road access, almost all the steel required by the company is delivered by ship, and unloaded with own handling equipment. “Our location by the Wilhelmina Canal is ideal. Another advantage is that our neighbours, Staalstraal

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Brabant, are the number one grit-blasting and preservation company for the steel trade in the Netherlands.” The new plant at Oosterhout employs a staff of 92.

Trade and finishing “Our customers can choose from full steel plates or profiling work”, continued Joost van Dijk. “We have the broadest range of steel plates on stock, anywhere in the Benelux. Our strength lies in our huge stock of S355J2+N plates, as well as Dillimax 690, a high-strength steel variety often used in the offshore, material handling and yellow goods sectors.

One real speciality which we keep on stock in Oosterhout for what has now become a worldwide customer base, is Dicrest, a guaranteed HIC-resistant steel type, intended for the construction of pressure vessels for the petrochemical industry.

AWS of course also sells the technically superior special steels from our parent company Dillinger Hütte. We are however not subject to any purchasing obligation, so AWS also buys a great deal of steel from other rolling mills in Europe and beyond, in order to be able to guarantee a competitive market position.”

We keep the standard steel trade sizes of 6,000–14,000mm long and 2,000–3,500mm wide on stock. The plate thicknesses range from 5 to 300 mm and the plates weigh up to 20 tonnes, sometimes even up to 30 tonnes for special orders. As well as purchasing steel plates from stock, customers can also call upon the services of AWS for high-quality flame cutting work. “In the cutting business, each year we cut more than 25,000 tonnes of steel to the required sizes and shapes, on request including edge weld chamfering and other mechanical processes.” The cutting beds are 150 metres long and 6 metres wide. Cutting is carried out using 5 CNCcontrolled autogenous flame cutting machines and 3 (high definition) plasma cutting machines.

Market and customers The domestic market for AWS takes in the entire Netherlands and Belgium. “Each year we dispose of the vast majority of steel we sell on our domestic market. We are however also recognising clear growth in the sales of special products in Europe and beyond. The products in question are mainly high-strength steel, steel plate for boilers and pressure vessels and more generally the larger thickness plates produced by Dillingen. The ‘structural strength’ of AWS is one of the catch phrases we employ for the sale of our high-strength steel plates.

One major advantage for our export customers is that our company is just a stone’s throw from Rotterdam and Antwerp, from where shipment is arranged to far-off export destinations. Sheets are sometimes even transported by aircraft.” The customers for the products from AWS operate in various sectors, including the offshore industry, medium and heavy mechanical engineering, petrochemicals, boiler construction and appliance engineering, dredging, groundworks and civil engineering, steel construction

An overview picture of the cutting beds in the large hall at AncoferWaldram Steelplates.

and crane building, the transport equipment sector and shipbuilding. Joost van Dijk went on, “Dillimax 690 steel is used in many of the cranes built by Huisman-Itrec. The same steel variety is however also used in products from Mammoet and Caterpillar machines. We have been directly and indirectly supplying steel for years to many IRO members, in particular the large construction yards and engineering plants.

Our products are also used in the large monohull crane vessel currently under construction by IHC Merwede for Seaway Heavy Lifting. Eye-catching projects in the Netherlands in which steel from Dillinger Hütte has been used include the Maeslantkering storm surge barrier in the New Waterway, the Erasmus bridge in Rotterdam and the high-speed rail bridge across the Hollands Diep at Moerdijk.

Comparing apples and oranges Quality and solidity are key priorities at AWS, the first steel trading company in the Netherlands to receive ISO certification from Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance, as long ago as 1991.

One new feature is that the company has now entered all logistic details of the complete stock in a computer system.

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Some 25,000 tonnes of quarto steel plate is available from stock.

“With that in mind, we developed our own tracking and tracing system in-house. All steel plates are individually checked and labelled upon arrival and subsequently accurately tracked. If necessary, a customer can select a specific plate having first studied the material certificates. Infrared terminals have now been installed around the warehouse, for picking the individual steel plates. Paper picking notes are a thing of the past. All in all, these developments have led to more reliable capacity planning, greater accuracy and shorter delivery times.”

One subject which Joost van Dijk, as a real steel plate specialist, particularly draws to our attention is the so-called “apples and oranges” problem. More and more relatively cheap material from Asia is starting to flood the market. AWS now also maintains a wide variety of these steels on stock, and although formally speaking the material meets the applicable standards, in many cases it is clearly of poorer quality.

“Customers should therefore think very carefully before using these steels. A random S355J2+N steel plate with an impact resistance of just 30 to 60 Joules, from China, can quite simply not be compared in terms of purity, homogeneity, ductility, material reserve and quality assurance with vacuum degassed S355J2+N material with a strength of 150 to 200 Joules, produced by the well-known Western European rolling mills. It is like comparing apples with oranges, and results in technical processing risks that in many cases are underestimated; sometimes due to ignorance, sometimes nonchalance but more often than not due to cost pressures. In particular in China and

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the Ukraine, there is still much low-grade produce. And then we have not even touched on the material that is requested without certificates. For that reason, many customers in the offshore sector quite rightly still specify material from a Western European rolling mill, supplied with a 3.2. Lloyd’s or 3.2 DNV certificate, for high-quality applications in the offshore industry or crane building.” It is also vitally important that high-strength steel like Dillimax 690, particularly in large thicknesses, first be thoroughly preheated according to the manufacturer’s instructions, prior to processing. “The specific experience acquired by us over the past 25 years has taught us that correct pre-heating of high-strength steel is of vital importance.”

And that is why AWS prefers to always cut this material in the large thickness ranges, in their own cutting shop. “With its pre-heating tables and measuring equipment, our shop is perfectly equipped for this task. Saving a few cents by not or at least not sufficiently preheating can lead to major risks (for example crack formation).”

AWS even employs its own welding engineer. As a consequence, AWS is the only steel plate supplier in the Netherlands able to offer its customers expert and practical welding advice. “Of course we can always call upon the expertise of the metallurgical department at Dillinger Hütte itself”, concluded Joost van Dijk, emphasising that although AncoferWaldram Steelplates acts as the ultimate one-stop shop in the higher market segment for the steel plate trade, over the past few years, the company has also massively expanded its range and deliveries of commodity qualities n

IRO NEWSletter MARCH 2009

Competitive competence in steel plates and flame cutting Over 25.000 tonnes of quality plates in stock Flame cutting • reliable highly experienced partner for heavy parts / high thicknesses • thickness 6-300 mm: 6 oxygenous cutting machines; 3 plasma cutting machines • authorised by DNV, LRS, TUV for transfer of markings (restamping) • 150 x 6 meter cutting tables • automatic two-sides deburring line • bevelling robot, shotblasting / painting • additional tooling

Steel plates • • • • • • •

Structural strength in steel plates

over 25.000 tonnes in stock: 22.000 m2 roofed surface construction plates S235JR / S355J2+N acc EN 10025-2 shipbuilding plates Gr. A LRS / DH 36 LRS / EH 36 LRS high strength fine grained plates (Dillimax 690 - 1100) wear-resistant plates (Dillidur 400 / 500 V) exclusive worldwide HIC-resistant Dicrest stockholder boiler plates P265GH, P355NL2, SA 516 Gr 60/ Gr 70

AncoferWaldram Steelplates bv: Expertise, skills and true competence in heavy steel plate processing.

Contact: Joost van Dijk, e-mail: joost.van.dijk@aws.dillinger.biz AncoferWaldram Steelplates bv is a subsidiary of the Dillinger Hütte Group

AncoferWaldram Steelplates bv / P.O. Box 190 4900 AD Oosterhout The Netherlands T +31(0)162 49 15 00 F +31(0)162 42 98 06 E info@AWS.dillinger.biz I www.AncoferWaldram.nl