European Oil and Gas Issue 100 Early Edition

early EDITION ď ˇ issue 100 ď ˇ 2013

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Building relationships Relationship risk and the challenges of partnership working

Energy works Oil and gas growth is increasing career opportunities Striking a balance Operators should move towards a data-centric world

this ISSUE: Energy contracts

Editors Chairman Andrew Schofield Group Managing Director Mike Tulloch

Sales Director David Garner Corporate Advertising Sales David King dking@schofieldpublishing.co.uk Sales Finlay Johnson Head of Research Philip Monument Business Development Manager Mark Cawston Research Managers Natalie Martin Ben Richell Editorial Researchers Ed Hipperson Kieran Shukri Jeff Johnson ­Office Manager Tracy Chynoweth

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As the

oil and gas industry expands, project complexity increases, and in this environment collaboration and partnerships are essential to successful operations.

Of course, in that increased complexity the challenges of partnership working also increase, as we discover in our lead feature in this issue.

We were fortunate enough to gain valuable insight from Alex Cameron and David Archer, both directors of Socia Ltd and authors of ‘Collaborative Leadership: Building relationships, handling conflict and sharing control’. On page four they address the challenges of partnerships in oil and gas, pointing out “the greatest risks in any system are at the boundaries between one part of the system and another – and that's never been truer than in today’s interconnected business environment.”

If you are working in the energy industry the chances are that partnerships and collaboration are part of your everyday life, and with the risks that accompany this type of work, Alex and David’s feature is essential reading. After all, as they explain, “In an even more interconnected world in the future, the skills of collaboration and relationship risk management will become critical.”

editors Libbie Hammond & matt high

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Art Editor Gérard Roadley-Battin Advertising Design Jenni Newman Production Manager Fleur Conway Production Administrator Vicky Howes

In an even more interconnected world in the future, the skills of collaboration and relationship risk management will become critical”

European oil & gas

Managing Editor Libbie Hammond libbie@schofieldpublishing.co.uk Editor Matt High mhigh@schofieldpublishing.co.uk Staff Writers Kirsty Birkett-Stubbs Jo Cooper Drew Dann Editorial Administrator Emma Harris

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Regulars

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Relationship risk and the challenges of partnership working

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News

A look at some of the recent developments in the oil and gas industry

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IT

Why operators should move towards a data-centric world

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Lead feature

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Special feature

How oil and gas growth is increasing career opportunities

Project complexity demands a closer eye on energy contracts

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Profiles

Lead feature

8 Transvac Systems 22 Ventspils Nafta Terminals 27 Kuantan Port Consortium 29 ALE 32 Seven Seas Services 34 Essar Oil 37 Ugland Construction 39 Kongsberg Maritime

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Contents

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59 BAM Energie 63 Providence Resources 65 Karmsund 68 Wessington Cryogenics

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42 Cryo AB 44 ms Neumann Elektronik 47 Top Oilfield Industries 49 Ben Line Agencies 52 CS Combustion Solutions 54 Brubakken 56 Motherwell Bridge

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Building relationships

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David Archer and Alex Cameron discuss relationship risk and the challenge of partnership working in oil and gas “

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Below David Archer director of Socia Ltd

Below Alex Cameron director of Socia Ltd

M

ind the gap” – it’s a phrase every visitor to London has heard a thousand times.

Originally recorded in the 1960s as a short automated announcement to passengers to watch out for the gap between the platform edge and the tube train door at curved station platforms, it’s become an English language cliché. But as a safety announcement it contains a simple truth. People have always known that the greatest risks in any system are at the boundaries between one part of the system and another – and that’s never been truer than in today’s interconnected business environment.

The oil and gas sector is more experienced than most at working in this ‘interconnected’ manner, and it might be reasonable to suggest that some sectors newer to partnership working (transport or Government, for example) might have something to learn from the experience in the energy industry. But we all know that it’s not so easy to make these partnerships work over time. There are inherent risks in sharing control with other organisations and being dependent on their performance to deliver your business objectives. And when these arrangements go wrong, the consequences can be catastrophic. There’s no need to go over the lessons from Macondo or Piper Alpha here, but it’s worth reflecting on whether we are paying attention to all the right factors in these complex interconnected situations.

Identifying relationship risks Risks that originate in your partner’s organisation, or risks that arise because of the interaction (or lack of interaction) between two organisations, need a place on a joint risk register. They also need to be watched carefully because these relationship risks have their own peculiar characteristics that make them particularly difficult to manage.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was ridiculed for his remarks about ‘unknown unknowns’ with regard to Iraq’s links to terrorist organisations, but there was some truth behind his scrambled syntax. Conventional risks registers deal in ‘known knowns’; risks whose impact and likelihood can at least be reasonably estimated. These risks are comfortable for engineers to handle, but when risks are being managed across an organisational boundary, things are never that transparent. It’s difficult to interpret the potential warning signs that may be seen coming from within your partner’s organisation and, in turn, it’s difficult for them to understand the signs from your organisation. Trying to manage relationship risks brings us into the world of ‘known unknowns’ and ‘unknown knowns’.

Known Unknowns In these situations you know your own organisation has some vulnerability to how your partner may operate and you may be unsighted on their lack of technical competence,

the capability of their subcontractors, etc. But what is largely unknown is the likelihood of your partner triggering this risk by their actions. It’s difficult to get your partner to let you know their vulnerabilities, particularly if they have over-sold their capability when they contracted with you.

This is particularly true when partners are working across different organisational cultures: all the subtle cues that would indicate that something is wrong aren’t there. In fact, there may be cultural barriers to discussing problems or failings, and so the risk to project, well or developments are unquantified.

Unknown knowns Then there are the situations where you simply don’t know what your partner knows – the unknown knowns. These could be instances where your partner has uncovered a problem or a potential risk and is working very hard to resolve that part of their process before telling you, or anyone else, about it. These situations can sometimes be described as ‘guilty knowledge’.

These may be risks that haven’t been considered: issues that had not been conceived as likely ever to pose a problem.

And from your partner’s point of view, these can look like risks that are contained totally within their own business: things that are their responsibility to resolve, with little or no knock-on impact on their partners. But the lack of

transparency and unwillingness of one partner to talk to anyone else about a problem because they think they have it under control again creates an unquantified risk.

However, in order to build a resilient collaborative partnership – to be able to explore the known unknowns and the unknown knowns - both sides must be committed to talking about their attitude to risk and to understand their own and their partner’s risk profile. In our experience this goes far beyond a simple high, medium or low risk profile rating and means understanding more about your partner’s business, its culture and its history.

All our attitudes to risk are informed by what we have seen going wrong in the past, the price we have paid for it and the lessons we have drawn from the experience. But how does the industry put this experience into practice?

Tackling relationship risk When it comes to addressing relationship risks and building a management framework for handling them successfully, we can’t just depend on the usual approaches to risk management and the creation of risk registers. It comes down to a balance between three aspects of how the partnership is run, namely Governance, Operations and Behaviours. Of course the amount of effort required in each will depend on the specifics of the situation you face, but a risk management plan that only addresses one or two

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of these areas will be less resilient than one that addresses all three. And this needs to be set up at the start of any new partnership – at the point where the ink is still wet on the new contract and there is sufficient goodwill to make it work.

Governance: The first step is to build relationship risk management into the formal governance process. All organisations and projects have risk registers that should be reviewed. But, in our experience, these risk registers often don’t focus on the partners’ real worries and fears. Issues as complex as the relationship between organisations are rarely identified in these documents. If the future success of the venture depends on building strong partnerships, then there needs to be an agreed process to check that the risk register reflects the need to manage relationship risks that could be overlooked. This will mean addressing some sensitive issues that can’t always be quantified but are likely to be the issues that keep partners awake at night.

Operations: Operationalising the early warning systems is an important factor in the effective management of relationship risk. Experienced managers pick up signs intuitively – something just doesn’t feel right – but, between organisations, these feelings are often dismissed. These early indicators might include one party being excluded from a task, a key person being unable to attend an important meeting or the late delivery of a report, etc.

But what happens when warning signs start to emerge from such a system? Here it’s important to have the right set of incentives and sanctions to hand. In a complex technical environment such as oil exploration, equipment can fail,

people can make mistakes, but the consequences are much more dangerous. A robust relationship risk system will incentivise partners to identify these early indicators and communicate them early to partners.

Behaviours: Formal risk governance and efficient joint safety management systems are essential foundations for relationship risk management, but they are not enough. The behaviour of leaders plays a crucial part in setting the culture of the relationship and building its appetite to risk. Like any marriage, strong enduring relationships don’t happen by accident and they have their ups and downs. Business relationships also need tending carefully too. This means leaders must recognise the need to invest their own time and resources in building those relationships when the partnership is going well so that the goodwill built up can be drawn down when times are tough. If these relationships cross cultures, as they so often do in the oil and gas sector, this can be seen as a reason to keep your distance. But this natural reticence should be tempered by the need to establish open and effective communication and trust in these relationships. This has to be the priority for the leaders of the partnership.

The future is more collaboration and so more relationship risks The response to the high profile disasters of the past means more scrutiny from regulators and new ways to respond to avoid environmental impacts. Take the example of the industry-owned co-operative Oil Spill Response Ltd, which exists to respond to oil spills and works with other industry organisations to share experience and

develop knowledge. Here is an organisation that has to have collaboration in its DNA: it can only deliver benefit to the industry in times of crises by using the knowledge, contribution and goodwill of all the participating organisations. This means that if the relationships between these partners don’t work, then the risks in times of crisis are significantly increased.

And the greatest risks in an interconnected partnership are often found at ‘the platform edge’ – the points of high interdependence between different parties. These are where relationships matter, where communication needs to be effective and trust needs to be high. Yet the greatest opportunities are often found at precisely the same points.

Here different organisations have to work closely together.

This can be tricky, but the friction can also be creative: people challenge each other’s assumptions, ask apparently stupid questions that make people see in a new light, and posit different ways of doing things. But this won’t happen without individual leaders taking relationship risk seriously. Successful leaders in the oil and gas industry have always been those who can manage relationships well. In an even more interconnected world in the future, the skills of collaboration and relationship risk management will become critical.

The leader’s response In essence, we would suggest that leaders have four imperatives with regard to managing risks that could result in failure or worse.

66 Leading across a partnership means you have to deal with

the paradox of shared control. To create more systemic control of joint risk means that you need to let go of some aspects of control and focus on developing an open and trusting relationship with your partners.

66Leaders

need to be skilled at effective communication that transcends cultural differences. This means being prepared to admit to some vulnerabilities in your own organisation and encourage your partners to do the same so you build resilient ways of managing risk together 66 Set up any partnership in a manner where relationship risks are explicitly addressed as part of a risk management process – risks have their own place on the risk register.

66 Be aware of your own attitude to risk and what drives it.

Does this fit with the risk profile of your own organisation and with the demands of the objectives of the partnership or project?

Socia Ltd David Archer and Alex Cameron are co-directors of Socia Ltd, a consultancy specialising in advising private and public sector leaders, leadership teams and boards on managing critical business relationships. Their oil and gas sector clients include Premier Oil, Salamander Energy and Ophir Energy.

They are co-authors of ‘Collaborative Leadership – Building relationships, handling conflict and sharing control’ (Routledge, March 2013).

For further information please visit: socia.co.uk

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When it comes to addressing relationship risks and building a management framework for handling them successfully, we can’t just depend on the usual approaches to risk management and the creation of risk registers. It comes down to a balance between three aspects of how the partnership is run, namely Governance, Operations and Behaviours

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recovery A flare for

Above Transvac subsea Ejector for Petrobras' Marlim Field Below Marlim, Campos Basin, Brazil

“

We have just celebrated our 40th year, which was a couple of weeks ago,” says marketing manager of Transvac, Peter Ainge. “It’s a nice milestone - we have been around for a long time. At the heart of all of our oil and gas solutions lies the Ejector, sometimes also known as an eductor or surface jet pump.

They are essentially pumps that have no moving parts, require little or no maintenance and often require no ‘new’ energy to run. They use a jet of either liquid or gas to create a low pressure region in the body of the Ejector which then draws in a third fluid, which again can be either a gas or a liquid. It’s an old principle that has been around for hundreds of years but is very effective and offers some exciting opportunities to the oil and gas industry.”

The principles behind Transvac’s Ejector systems may be hundreds of years old but the company is breaking new ground across a host of industries. The oil and gas industry however, has been the company’s most important catalyst for growth as it looks for ways to improve on the levels of resources recovered. “We use Ejectors across a range of industries including nuclear, oil and gas, food and pharmaceutical, water treatment, steam and vacuum,” Peter explains. “These have kept our business nice and steady over the years, however the oil and gas industry is our most exciting market. A very topical theme in the industry, particularly in the

North Sea is about recovering more, extending field life and if possible restarting ‘dead’ wells.

With a mature field and depleting reserves one of the challenges is not to abandon a well or a field when it has only had 40-50 per cent of its resources recovered. Our patented production boosting Ejectors reduce backpressure on wells, or indeed lower the backpressure from a separator, to enhance recovery.

“There are two common ways in which an Ejector can be driven, requiring no new energy and no running costs. This means that any gain in production is free, 100 per cent efficient. The first opportunity is where there is a high pressure (HP) well that is being choked to reduce its pressure.

This is common practice so as to maintain production across other nearby wells sharing the same production facilities. However, there is energy being wasted across the valve, offering no benefit. We can use this energy to drive an Ejector. The Ejector becomes the choke device in effect, but also creates a suction that can be used to literally suck on the LP, dead well, bringing it back to life. Liquid loaded wells are no problem as, unlike mechanical compressors, Ejectors can handle liquid slugs with without issue.”

The second opportunity lies where mechanical compressors are operating in recycle, which is commonplace in mature fields where the throughput has fallen off. By recycling some of the gas from the discharge side of the

to atmospheric pressure, to be compressed up to a pressure high enough to either re-enter production or be used as a fuel gas elsewhere on the facility.

It’s a very effective solution and a great alternative to liquid ring vacuum pumps or mechanical compressors that are often plagued with maintenance issues and spiraling running costs.

Elaborating on the success of Transvac’s

It looks like a simple piece of pipe to be honest, it’s not an exciting piece of kit to look at but what is going on inside, and the opportunities it presents, really are

Above Transvac's research & development test facility

doesn’t require any maintenance,” says Peter. “It looks like a simple piece of pipe to be honest, it’s not an exciting piece of kit to look at but what is going on inside, and the opportunities it presents, really are.

“We’ve had huge success with these, they can create hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of revenue a day for no extra cost apart from the cost of the Ejector. It doesn’t require any power or maintenance, it will run itself – it’s just a principle of physics. A lot of the time we’ll have engineers saying, “That sounds too good to be true, what’s the catch?”, but there really isn’t one.”

In 2010 Transvac opened its research and development test facility, which has allowed the company to break new ground in a big way. A great example of this is Transvac’s new flare gas recovery solution, FlareJet. “We have over 20 years experience in delivering flare gas recovery solutions to the industry, but armed with this new performance data and some cutting-edge Ejector designs we can now offer gas compression up to 90:1,” says Gary Short, R&D director. “FlareJet is the result of many years of development and our latest IP. It has opened up many new opportunities for our clients who can now enjoy zero-flare operation at their facilities.”

In many cases produced water can be used to drive an Ejector. This can achieve very high compression, which allows flare gas, often close

research and development centre, Peter says “We have used the research and development facility for a number of projects including sand cleaning packages, and we are currently in the process of testing a gas-flaring package for flare gas recovery in Oman for PDO. It’s groundbreaking work we’re doing, we have been making liquid jet Ejectors for 40 years but now we have been able to completely rewrite the rulebook regarding what we are able to do with them.”

Moving beyond 2013 Transvac is determined to push into its largest market, the oil and gas industry, as well as developing the way it operates in other sectors. Alongside delivering its FlareJet system, the company will look to take advantage of the growing subsea industry, which it sees as perfectly suitable for its Ejector products.

Many technologies have fallen by the wayside and many require complete redesign to operate subsea. Ejectors do not and as such, Transvac has been part of some of the subsea industry’s most groundbreaking projects, such as Marlim, the FMC/Petrobras subsea separation and reinjection module currently installed in the Campos Basin off the coast of Brazil. Transvac also supplied the world’s first subsea Ejector to Tordis, the FMC/Statoil separation module. This was the world’s first full-field subsea separation system. Ultimately, 2013 is looking very exciting for Transvac.

Left Transvac supplied the world's first subsea ejector for Tordis the world's first full field subsea separation system

Transvac Systems Ltd Transvac.co.uk

Services Product boosting and recovery solutions

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compressor and feeding it back into the suction side, the compressor then sees a throughput closer to its design point. Again, there is a loop of wasted energy, which can be tapped into and used to drive an Ejector. “We’ve had some great success with this and the beauty of our technology is that it has no moving parts, it doesn’t require any electrical power and it

Transvac Systems

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PROFILE

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Talent spotters

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NES Global Talent, the technical manpower specialist, has appointed industry expert Matt Underhill to the new strategic role of regional director for Asia Pacific, as part of plans to become a £100 million net profit business by the year 2020.

Leading NES Global Talent’s 13 offices in nine countries across Asia and Australasia, Matt will focus on growing the company’s contract and permanent staffing solutions business across core sectors including oil and gas, power and infrastructure, as well as diversifying into new markets.

Talking about why he joined NES Global Talent, Matt, who has a degree in engineering, said: “NES Global Talent has an unrivalled reputation in the market and a professional, forward-looking outlook, always striving to provide the innovative solutions needed to fill the engineering skills gap.

“While Australia is home to some of the best engineering talent in the world, with so many projects on the go and many more in the pipeline, demand has been outstripping supply and the country is suffering from numerous skills shortages.

In Asia, there are different challenges, while there are plenty of appropriately trained graduates entering the market, experienced expertise within technically demanding projects is still in short supply.”

Above: Cable protection specialist Tekmar Energy plans to return to the oil and gas market whilst maintaining its leading position in offshore renewables

Anticipated return

The world’s leading cable protection company for the offshore wind industry, Tekmar Energy, has announced ambitious plans to return to the oil and gas market, whilst maintaining its leading position in offshore renewables.

As part of the firm’s blueprint for growth it aims to generate £15 million in turnover from its oil and gas operations by 2016, as part of a strategy to increase overall turnover from £22 million to £50 million and create between 30 and 50 new jobs.

The company, headquartered in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, is also looking to open a base in Aberdeen whilst expanding its existing operations in the North-east of England.

Chief executive James Richie said: “Within the rapidly expanding subsea oil and gas sector, there is rising demand for high quality, reliable protection systems for subsea umbilicals, risers and flowlines. We are gearing up to respond to this need with a flexible, high quality service and reduced delivery times.

“Oil and gas is an area we already know and understand and we feel the time is right for us to return to this sector. The industry rightly demands the highest quality in delivery and safety standards and we have a strong history of meeting these requirements.”

Healthy outlook North Sea drilling activity remains steady, with a positive forecast for the next two quarters, according to a new report into offshore activity from Deloitte, the business advisory firm.

The report, compiled by Deloitte’s Petroleum Services Group (PSG) found that although the number of new wells drilled on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) has fallen slightly in comparison to the same period last year, the level of exploratory activity remains healthy.

A total of 16 exploration and appraisal wells were drilled in the UK during the second quarter of 2013 – seven more than during Q1 but two fewer than the same period last year. Despite the slight fall on 2012’s figures, Q2 2013 has still produced two more new wells than the quarterly average since the end of 2011 – a year which saw the lowest activity since 2003.

Development activity is also holding strong, with six fields being granted development approval and four actually coming onstream across UK and Norwegian waters. Although the number of fields coming onstream in the UK (three) is down on the same period in 2012 (five), innovative technologies mean that previously ‘sub-commercial’ developments – those which might not have been considered economically viable – are beginning to provide real prospects, further incentivising the exploration and development of the area.

News

Specialist provider DOF Subsea Norway, a specialist subsea solutions provider, has been awarded a contract by Teekay Petrojarl Production AS in Norway for a newbuild FPSO. The scope of work includes mooring pre-installation, tow-out and hook-up work for Teekay Petrojarl Production’s new FPSO, which will be installed on the BG-operated Knarr field in the Norwegian North Sea. DOF Subsea Norway will mobilise its Skandi Skolten vessel for this project, with six further vessels from its global fleet being utilised in support.

Jan-Kristian Haukeland, EVP DOF Subsea Atlantic Region, said: “We are delighted that Teekay has provided us this opportunity and has such confidence in our ability to provide the services they require. The award of this contract means we now have significant project work scopes from Teekay in the Norwegian and UK sectors of the North Sea. “We see this as an endorsement not only of our specialist vessels but also of the highly skilled project management and engineering team we have in place to support this type of project.”

The project will be completed in three phases, the first of which will see the pre-installation of the complete mooring system, consisting of 12 mooring lines, taking place in 2013.

Major contract Heerema Fabrication Group (HFG), a leading contracting group specialising in engineering and fabrication, has appointed specialist recruitment consultancy Fircroft to recruit approximately 350 contractors to assist in the build of four gas platforms for the Cygnus gas field project in the southern North Sea. The deal means around 10,500 tons of fabrication work will be completed in Hartlepool and will ensure work in the yard until 2015. To support the requirements, the team at Fircroft has embarked on a multi-marketing campaign to attract workers from across the region.

The campaign includes online activity, placing adverts in the regional press and holding a series of open days in Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough Football Stadiums.

Lee Bailey, business manager at Fircroft, said: “This is a major project that Fircroft is excited to be part of. Our infrastructure and capabilities, combined with the quality of engineering skills in the North East enables us to deliver an unrivalled solution to meet Heerema’s recruitment needs.

Sandra Groom, HR manager at Heerema, said: “We have worked with Fircroft in Teesside for more than ten years and, after a rigorous evaluation of their capabilities, decided they were the best choice for this major contract award.”

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Above: DOF Subsea Norway’s Skandi Skolten will assist with the installation of Teekay Petrojarl Production AS’ newbuild FPSO on the Knarr field development

Offshore accommodation and workspace specialists HB Rentals, part of Superior Energy Services has made two key appointments to its business operations as it continues to grow in the eastern hemisphere.

Brad Hirst and Mike Christie have been appointed sales and marketing manager and technical manager respectively and will operate out of the company’s new purpose-built UK facility.

Norman Porter, business unit managing director for Europe, Africa and Middle East spoke highly of the latest additions to the team: “These new appointments will be crucial as we continue to consolidate and improve our services in key markets such as the North Sea in line with our ongoing strategy for international growth. Both Brad and Mike bring a wealth of oil and gas experience to the company and their knowledge will be critical as we enter this new phase of development.”

Mr. Hirst joins HB Rentals with five years experience in the offshore module business, holding various commercial positions with the majority of that time spent working in the Middle East. Mr. Christie joins as the company’s new technical manager and will oversee all engineering matters with his remit spanning both UK and European operations.

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balance

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Striking a

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Rather than being held Hostage by current IT systems or solution vendors, operators should look to move from an application-centric environment towards a data-centric world, says Niall O’Doherty

E

ven before the Facebook entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg was born, in the mid-1980s the oil and gas industry was working with big data and solving complex mathematical problems. By the time he had started high school, Schlumberger had launched the GeoQuest product line and Landmark Graphics Corporation had acquired GeoGraphix, before being in turn acquired by Halliburton.

When Zuckerberg launched the social media site from his dorm in Harvard University in 2004, Schlumberger had already completed the purchases of Technoguide Petrel and VoxelVision. The oil and gas industry was pushing the technology envelope, driving innovation and expanding compute boundaries. Fast forward nearly ten years and it’s clear that early leadership has not entirely delivered against the vision and aspirations of users.

Below Niall O’Doherty, In an ideal world, complex reservoir models would international now be dynamically updated with inputs from drilling director of business and production sensor data. Investments in digital oilfield development technologies would ensure that predictive algorithms are at Teradata monitoring complex production systems and alerting operators of potential hazards, allowing them to visualise the information and recommend corrective action from their handheld device.

New insights would be generated on an almost daily basis from data streaming from permanent arrays on the ocean

floor, and then used to plan interventions that continually improve reservoir management.

So what has prevented the realisation of this operator utopia? One of the most likely factors was the oil crisis that occurred back in the 1970s. Under pressure to reduce costs, huge numbers of people that worked in the industry were made redundant.

This greatly affected the burgeoning information technology groups in major operators as investment in research and development of new computing solutions dried up. Nature abhors a vacuum and as a result, the service providers stepped in. With the growth of worldwide oil exploration triggered by the OPEC oil embargo of 1973, companies like Schlumberger were able to invest heavily in technologies, applications and software to support the oil industry.

Over the last 30 years we have seen the concentration of specialised domain expertise and application development skills in the service providers and their software application divisions.

Today’s operators primarily rely on service companies for the delivery, support and operation of applications that enable various parts of the workflow. The service companies in turn have grown by acquiring smaller application companies that have developed highly specialised tools, adding them to their growing software portfolios. This has had a number of consequences for the industry.

solution could be developed.

Today, the need for the different factions to work together has never been greater. IT vendors must acknowledge that specialist domain expertise is required to build solutions that work. For the incumbent service providers that own the current application stack in E&P, there is a need to understand that technology capability has dramatically changed over the last number of years and they should take advantage of these changes.

In the era of big data, sensor data and the ‘Internet of Things’, most other industry verticals are now facing many of the challenges that the oil industry has been facing for decades. IT companies are providing technologies that really do allow operators to leverage horizontal solutions for the data management challenges.

Moreover, the increasing use of sensor data is bringing scientific and mathematical calculations and geospatial functionality into the data management arena for many verticals. Both have what the other craves, so there would appear to be a natural synergy to working together.

But what about the customer? After all, aren’t they the ones that really matter? Some operators may be happy to wait for the IT and industry vendors to get together and build what they want. Others may actively encourage the union.

What’s clear is that the leading operators need to take back control of the key part of the entire equation and the part that has the most value: the data. In spending vast amounts of resources obtaining data that is the key raw ingredient in E&P, this should be then valued accordingly. After all, the data is only created once; the seismic trace, the well log measurement, the resistivity, the flow sensor reading; all these are unique in time and space.

How you use each data point over the lifetime of an asset will vary greatly, and the value that will be derived from each data point will depend on the people and tools made available to the data. The real value will be in ensuring that users are able to find and use all the unique data points and the information derived from that data so that they can impact the business; make better and safer decisions.

Operators that move from the current application centric architecture to a more open data centric architecture will be best positioned to do more with their data. They will be able to leverage the best that the IT vendors and the specialist solution vendors can provide, today and long into the future.

Teradata Niall O’Doherty is international director of business development at Teradata and works in the Emerging Industries Team. In his current role, Niall is responsible for growing Teradata’s presence, solutions and strategies in the emerging industries of manufacturing, oil and gas, government and utilities.

For further information please visit: teradata.co.uk

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The proliferation of applications across the E&P workflow, many of which are standalone, has resulted in a complex application and data management landscape. This complexity has led to many IT deployments failing to live up to expectations and many operators questioning why they are making significant investments in IT solutions that are not really addressing their most pressing challenges – or even offering the same level of sophistication they get from the consumer technologies that they are using at home.

There has also been a migration of specialist skills and research away from the operators to the software startups and key service providers. Leading operators are now concerned about the uniformity of solution capability. If they are relying on their service provider vendors to develop and deliver new capabilities then they are resigned to having the same capability as everyone else in the business. Where is the competitive advantage going to come from?

Now look at the IT vendor side of the equation. When you consider that, according to a paper delivered in 2012

by Piotr Luszczek of the University of Tennessee, “The iPad 2 could have stayed on the list of the world’s fastest supercomputers through 1994 – faster than a Cray 2”, you start to get a sense of the explosion in computing power that has occurred over the last decade.

IT vendors are looking at the budgets and data volumes in the oil and gas industry and thinking that they can do better than the traditional service company based application vendors. After all, they are real IT guys who develop leadingedge software and technologies and not a bunch of oil service guys who set up a programming division to build some solutions. How hard can it be?

This has, in some cases, led to arrogance on the part of IT vendors, who assume that there is nothing difficult in dealing with oil and gas data. They believe that the industry has simply fallen years behind other industries like telecommunications, banking and retailing because they are insular, they don’t keep up with IT trends and the latest technologies, or that they are resistant to change and stuck in the past. And they view those in oil and gas as either geology types who prefer crayons to computers, or a bunch of roughnecks who have just read coding for dummies.

So a bunch of arrogant computer jocks or a herd of roughneck coding dummies? As usual, the truth is always somewhere in the middle. There is reluctance from the oil and gas industry to try horizontal IT solutions since they “won’t work with our data because our data is different" – it’s too big, or too complex, has strange formats, or is too scientific. But it’s also true that the solutions that IT vendors assumed would work easily didn’t work that easily at all, because of data volume, or data structure, or the way the scientific calculations are used so frequently.

Vendors discovered that, in this complex environment, it was not just a case of loading the data and pushing a button. The science needed to be better understood and time invested in really understanding the problem so that the

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Energy

works

Simon Coton of NES Global Talent discusses careers in the oil and gas industry, and why now may be the right time to consider working in energy

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t’s no secret that the worldwide war for engineering talent is intensifying. More than half of the workforce is due to retire during the next decade and this, combined with the fact that many skilled workers have failed to return to European shores after the recession forced them overseas, means we are facing a tough fight. However, it also means that oil and gas skills are in huge demand and that there are an abundance of career opportunities available for those with the necessary skill sets and experience.

Skills shortage The oil and gas skills shortage is the biggest barrier to growth for companies in the North Sea. According to UK Government figures, there are an expected 15,000 jobs to

be created in the oil and gas sector over the next five years.

However, more than half of the respondents to the latest Labour Market Intelligence Survey by oil and gas body Opito said that finding appropriately skilled staff was the number one challenge facing their company.

North Sea operations have long been seen as a training ground by global operators, who quickly snap up talented workers. While Europe is home to some of the very best engineering talent in the world, this, combined with the exodus caused by the recession, means demand is outstripping supply and companies are struggling to find the professionals that they need.

Although the UK and Europe in general has suffered in recent years from maturing assets, several new discoveries have been made in the North Sea and this, together with the advancement of technology that prolongs field life, is

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boosting productivity.

At the same time, the UK Government is introducing new fiscal and regulatory measures, which will also encourage new investment. Indeed, trade body Oil & Gas UK said that following the introduction of tax changes earlier this year, the industry has responded by investing the highest amount for more than 30 years. Investments totaling almost £100 billion are now in companies’ plans, the organisation added.

Outside of the North Sea, the UK is also trying to cash in on the shale gas revolution. Although more restrained than other countries, with no commercial shale gas production to date, Energy and Climate Secretary Ed Davey recently said that shale gas could contribute significantly to the region's energy security, reducing reliance on imported gas as it moves to a low carbon economy. The Prime Minister David Cameron reinforced

this view point adding that ‘Britain must be at the heart of the shale gas revolution’.

Opportunities With so many new projects in the pipeline, the talent shortage poses a very serious problem for the oil and gas industry. However, it also means that there are plenty of opportunities available for people interested in a career in oil and gas. In fact, there has never been a better time to join this exciting sector.

If it’s variety that you are looking for then the oil and gas sector delivers. As the industry develops and transforms, new roles are being created within areas such as crisis management, sustainability, and digital and social media, meaning there is something to suit a whole spectrum of skill sets.

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Oil and gas companies are also re-training and recruiting people from other heavy industries, for example structural engineers and electrical engineers from the shipbuilding or infrastructure industries due to similar skill sets. This phenomenon is not unique to Europe, it’s happening worldwide given the increase in energy demand and the retirement of skilled, experienced workers

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Not only are there a wide range of disciplines to choose from, but candidates will also have the flexibility of working on either temporary or permanent assignments. Of course, there are pros and cons with both types of work, with higher earning potential and variety among the positive aspects of contract roles, while permanent positions often offer benefits such as a pension and provide more job security.

The choice of whether someone prefers to work on a contract or permanent basis is their own. However, it’s important to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages and if you are a new entrant it is wise to try and secure a permanent role as these positions tend to offer the best opportunities for training and development. Once you have gained the necessary practical skills and experience, you may then decide that contract work is more preferable, depending on your circumstances.

During the recession, NES Global Talent’s consultants noted that there was a preference among oil and gas companies for permanent workers as it allows for greater budget control and also cuts the cost of labour. This is another reason to consider ‘playing it safe’ by opting for a permanent position at the start of your career.

Fortunately, while we are not out of the woods yet, the financial crisis is easing and the oil and gas industry is getting back on track. A number of approved energy projects that were put on the back burner during the global recession are now developing well and getting closer to peak manpower, while there are more new projects in the pipeline for 2013 and beyond. As well as the continued development of mega-

projects such as Gorgon in Australia, there are a host of new projects worth in excess of $25 billion which are being developed in a number of global locations The future certainly looks bright. Brazil and Iraq remain hotspots for exploration and production activity with Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and the US also experiencing a surge in oil and gas jobs. With an estimated talent shortfall of 40,000 engineers in Brazil alone, engineering skills will be in huge demand. In addition, just building or rebuilding the infrastructure required in many emerging countries to meet economic growth targets will take a massive share of the world’s graduating civil, electrical and mechanical engineers for years to come.

It’s clear that there’s an abundance of opportunities within the oil and gas industry for suitably qualified technical and engineering personnel. However, new entrants shouldn’t be under any illusion that securing such opportunities will be easy. It’s important to remember that experience is key.

Caution is often shown towards hiring less experienced professionals ahead of their more knowledgeable peers.

In order to succeed, your qualifications must meet certain standards, but you must also have the relevant work experience.

Solutions In regards to the skills shortage in Europe, while there is no ‘quick fix’, many of the measures being adopted globally are helping those who are interested in embarking or moving into a career in the oil and gas industry.

The sector is focused on working with educational establishments and institutions to educate the younger generation about the amazing careers available working as an oil and gas engineer. Schemes such as the Institute of Chemical Engineer’s “Whynotchemeng” campaign help to promote the oil and gas industry to students at an age where they’re making key decisions about their future.

In addition, the sector is boosting the number of graduate engineering schemes and investing in entry-level training or re-training in order to strengthen the oil and gas workforce.

For example, earlier this year the UK Government gave £7 million to Newcastle University to establish the Neptune National Centre for Subsea and Offshore Engineering, which will help produce the highly skilled graduates needed to address the skills shortage. A new facility has also been opened at Expro, an offshore and technology services specialist in Aberdeen, which shows the industry is working hard to address the talent challenge.

Oil and gas companies are also re-training and recruiting people from other heavy industries, for example structural engineers and electrical engineers from the shipbuilding or infrastructure industries due to similar skill sets. This phenomenon is not unique to Europe, it’s happening worldwide given the increase in energy demand and the retirement of skilled, experienced workers. Particular skills in demand globally include deepwater subsea engineers as well as LNG and shale specialists.

Another sector the industry is keen to tap into more is the military. Ex-servicemen and women are highly trained

and well-disciplined with strong leadership skills, lots of systems and project management experience, a strong eye for detail and the ability to follow processes and procedures closely. These qualities are highly sought after in the oil and gas industry. Military personnel are also used to moving to multiple international locations and operating in challenging environments. Most servicemen and women have travelled far and wide, and are familiar with the locations where the oil and gas sector operates.

As you can see, there are plenty of different paths into the oil and gas industry, and whether you are a new entrant or are looking to transfer your engineering or technical skills, the opportunities are there waiting. Hard work, a desire to solve problems and a determination to help meet the increasing global demand for energy are all required by those looking to establish themselves. And if you’re prepared for that, you’ll reap the rewards.

NES Global Talent Simon Coton is NES Global Talent’s managing director. He joined the company in 1995 as a graduate and has since risen through the ranks, leading both its UK and Houston teams as part of his career progression. Established in 1978, NES Global Talent is an award winning manpower specialist that has placed over 70 different nationalities into 69 countries across the oil and gas, power and infrastructure sectors worldwide.

For further information please visit: nesglobaltalent.com

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Key

contracts European oil & gas

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Increasing energy project complexity demands a closer eye on contracts, as Clare Colhoun explains

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little less than a decade ago, we saw an era when oil and gas resources were relatively abundant and easy to extract. Whilst the International Energy Agency (IEA) envisages that fossil fuels will account for 60 per cent of energy generation by 2030, resources are becoming scarcer. Compared with its heyday, resources are now becoming harder and increasingly expensive to find and develop in an environment that is both geographically and technologically at the frontier.

The oil and gas operators have enjoyed relatively strong ROCE and enviable EBIT margins as crude oil prices have remained stubbornly high and global demand shows no sign of abating. As recently as 2012, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cashed in on around $1.1 trillion. Against this background, it is not surprising that despite the many years’ experience, often when oil and gas operators have had to choose, they have prioritised “Schedule” over “Budgeted Cost”. A crude paraphrase being

“Get to First Oil by the planned date – at any cost”. The fallout from this is clear when we consider the magnitude and cost of project overruns in this industry. On average, 40 per cent of mega-projects exceed budget and cycle time by ten per cent.

Traditionally, companies have attempted to mitigate against the risk of project cost overruns by engaging Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) firms in lump sum contracts. Under an EPC contract, the contractor usually has responsibility to produce detailed design and meet the performance output requirements of the specification, but when latent errors are found in the pre-tender Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) studies during the course of that detailed design, claims are invariably made by contractors as a result. Where the EPC Lump Sum contract is silent on how this risk should be dealt with, arbitrations, disputes, controversies and cost overruns inevitably ensue.

As these capital projects evolve, the likelihood of additional grey areas that give rise to Change Orders and possible

- Energy contracts

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claims increases. The owner contract management team is faced with a flurry of Change Order requests that need rigorous review, internal consultation, and expert opinion and management attention.

Project operators have traditionally relied on a combination of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, spreadsheets and paper trails to manage the aforementioned contracts. ERP systems are by design good at handling transaction management such as invoice and purchase order processing. These systems are designed for predictable, repetitive processes. However, in reality mega-projects operate in dynamic environments where new projects can throw up new contractual challenges. The “Review” and “Approval” or “Reject” processes that govern the decision making around Change Orders and ambiguous interface situations as projects progress from FEED to EPC and operations are not within the ERP footprint.

Increasingly, project operators are adopting “Fit for Purpose” contract management software that integrates with

the ERP and other systems to manage the contract execution phase of the project. Capital Project Contract Management Systems introduce a common contract communications platform that connects the parties, such as engineers, legal and finance teams and the contractor teams on a contract.

This allows teams to work collaboratively in a predetermined space. Such systems preserve the Red Thread as to where responsibility lies as the contract is executed, allowing for a single, referential point of truth. In essence, they synchronise the evolving contractual position with the evolving built environment so that the contract is always a true, real-time reflection of the latter.

This helps contract managers move from adversarial relationships to partnerships with contractors. Whilst the key is prevention, disputes remain inevitable in these projects.

Companies realise that during dispute resolution, accessing the true audit trail of decision-making and efficient access to all of the evidence for a case is essential in negotiating the case and minimising the associated cost. Companies

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Companies should ensure that their contract management processes and systems are capable of linking every decision – whether the trail is defined by email, invoices or even through a written note

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should ensure that their contract management processes and systems are providing this to them - providing them with the “story” and the context at the time a decision was made - rather than providing them access to disparate documents, emails and invoices, and yet no clarity as to how these are all tied together.

One would be forgiven to consider contracts as agreements that are set in stone. Yet as we know, such complex extraction projects span across decades, where dozens of changes inevitably have to happen due to political, technological or geographical developments. We are seeing this uncertainty continue as with the case of Shell, which is beginning to drill on frozen ice in the Arctic – a project entirely dependent on the company’s resilience to hostile and ever-changing weather conditions.

The practice of managing contracts through paper trails and spreadsheets may seem rather draconian, but until recently, contract management was a discipline that technological advances appeared to have almost by-passed.

There are a number of obvious issues with the spreadsheet and paper trail approach - such as data protection - but perhaps the most significant is that of compliance, particularly in the event of expensive contractual disputes.

Following the Gulf of Mexico’s accident, BP sued three of

its contractors on the grounds of misconduct as well as a separate lawsuit to the ring of $40bn against Transocean.

Whilst this is an extreme example, contractual disputes are a common occurrence that often attract millions of dollars in legal fees alone. We envisage that the frequency of such disputes will rise as companies turn to controversial techniques such as fracking, which is already attracting a myriad of lawsuits.

Upstream companies are by nature adventurers, explorers at will that cannot live entirely by precautionary principles or they will lose the game and get left behind in the battle to find new resources. Given the complex nature of these projects though, the key is to strongly support the entrepreneur mindset with fit-for-purpose systems and business processes, as “Chance favours the prepared mind”.

The complexity of projects is also increasing due to demand downstream, where energy providers are playing a careful balancing act between providing energy at the cheapest price possible to retain customers - whilst harvesting energy at the lowest prices possible. To meet demand, unconventional sources, such as tar sand oils, requiring less efficient extraction processes are becoming more prevalent, which in turn is driving up per barrel production costs.

Unconventional sources also carry a major environmental

price tag, either through penalties inflicted by governments, or through costs for decarbonising supply, through Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS).

In the next 20 years, Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS), which traps CO2 from processing and burning fossil fuels, will become an industrialised carbon mitigation technology expected on fossil fuel projects. Shell’s first commercial scale CCS applications are under construction at the Boundary Dam coal-fired power plant in Saskatchewan, Canada, while its £1bn Quest project will be the first to apply CCS to unconventional oil. It is this increasing complexity of unconventional oil, combined with new projects to limit environmental impacts that are turning energy harvesting projects into even larger enterprises. As a result, we are beginning to see companies putting contract management back on the agenda, implementing rules, processes and systems, which are centred on being accountable and transparent. This includes contract management systems, which unlike ERP, are designed for the complexities of contract management.

The key is to have deep insight, enabling teams to move forward and manage proactively. Hindsight is no use when getting to the root of a project failure. Having a view of information available at the time of mistake, providing radical

transparency can help the contract manager move from adversarial relationships to partnerships with contractors.

On the ground, this approach would ensure that engineers in the field are able to make the necessary contractual changes in a relatively quick, audited manner without breaking a contract and attracting the associated litigation costs.

Indeed, from an efficiency standpoint, contract management should standardise the language used both vertically and horizontally within a project. In our experience, often engineers, EPCs, contract managers and executives all use different terms to describe the same thing. For instance, an EPC might call a change to a project a Change Order, as opposed to the company calling it a “variation order” and so forth. Such miscommunication can pave the way for inefficient and even unsafe processes leading to serious issues.

Whilst prevention is better than cure, disputes remain inevitable considering each project employs hundreds, even thousands of individual contracts. In the event of a dispute, companies realise that finding the right audit trails and evidence for a case is essential in minimising the cost of a dispute. Companies should ensure that their contract management processes and systems are capable of linking every decision – whether the trail is defined by email, invoices or even through a written note. This was the case that shadowed the BP Macondo disaster, where it was difficult to find out who did what in the absence of an audit trail. The key in achieving this level of visibility is to leverage contract management as an added layer of insurance against disputes.

With the likelihood of wasted investment on oil and gas projects so high, companies are tightening up contract management in order to drive cost efficiencies before making such projects more ambitious. Traditionally, funds and shares in oil and gas companies have for many years provided fruitful returns for investors. However, it has been these lucrative revenues that led to carte blanche for a culture of costly, inefficient practices. With rising project complexity, scrutiny on compliance and smaller margins, investors as well as stakeholders are placing increasing focus on how these projects are fundamentally managed. Contract management is one way that companies can demonstrate greater accountability, transparency and indeed achieve better returns for their investors.

8over8 Clare Colhoun is chief executive officer at 8over8, a leading provider of contract management software solutions for organisations that build and operate assets. The company designs and develops contract management software solutions that support billion dollar projects from initial concept selection through to design, build, operate and decommission.

For further information please visit: 8over8.com

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Plans in the

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It has been a

Above and below Rail tank unloading rack

productive 12 months since Ventspils Nafta Terminals (VNT), the largest and most technologically advanced crude oil and petroleum product transshipment company in the Baltic States, last spoke to European Oil and Gas Magazine in June 2012.

Determined to retain its leading position for storage and transshipment in the competitive Baltic region, the terminal is continuing with its five year restructuring programme.

Major changes to be implemented include the reconstruction of one of its rail tank car unloading stations and the installation of an oil product vapour recovery system, as managing director of VNT, Lars Pantzlaff highlights: “You have to do something different to separate yourself from the others, and one way of doing that is to increase niches that will really benefit VNT in the transshipment market. Our plan to progress really comes down to improving and expanding the services on offer. In terms of infrastructure, the railway deliveries are a huge

part of our business, on top of the diesel pipeline connected to the terminal. We have three active railway unloading racks, big structures of around 300 metres in length, where we can unload on average 30 rail tank cars on each side. One of the three is going to be replaced by new by the end of 2014.”

Part of Ventspils Nafta Group, the business has an extensive history dating back to 1957 when the leaders of the Soviet Union recognised the logistical advantages of Ventspils, such as its non-freezing fully operational port, and built a terminal for the export of crude oil. Operations began in 1961, sparking ongoing expansion, investments and developments. In 1974 the terminal established its key crude oil pipeline from the Russian fields and in 2003, following the regaining of independence from the Republic of Latvia, Ventspils Nafta Terminals was established as a privately run company.

Today, the terminal’s main services include the transshipment of gas oil and gasoline

VNT’s excellent logistical infrastructure is superior to many other storage and handling facilities on the market and allows both VNT and its clients to be in close proximity to one another, ensuring close relationships with customers and increased efficiency in schedule planning received via pipeline and railway, as well as quality analysis of crude oil and petroleum at its laboratory to ensure product quality. Boasting 105 shore tanks that are connected to pipeline systems, VNT has a capacity for crude oil and petroleum storage of 1.2 million cubic metres.

To guarantee safe and faultless storage and transportation operations within the terminal, a fully automated system was installed and a united control room was created.

Despite global economic situations and regional product flows, an impressive 6.25 million tonnes of oil and oil products were transshipped by VNT in the first half of 2013, resulting in a net profit of 5.02 million lats.

VNT handles a huge 72 per cent of all liquid cargo in Ventspils, 48 per cent of all liquid cargo in Latvia and is also the largest oil product terminal in the Baltic States, with 19 per cent of all cargo transshipped through Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian ports. “All of our daily operations are safe, efficient and well controlled

so our key focus is to develop our plans and reach a point where they can be executed. These developments are being processed internally by the fantastic people we have at VNT. These days plain old vanilla is not sustainable any more. You need a good efficient operation and excellent infrastructure, and the people that drive the process of getting there. Though our infrastructure is sound and in good condition, we need to work on it as it comes to age, but these investments will benefit the terminal significantly,” says Lars.

VNT’s excellent logistical infrastructure is superior to many other storage and handling facilities on the market and allows both VNT and its clients to be in close proximity to one another, ensuring close relationships with customers and increased efficiency in schedule planning. As a terminal that receives a variety of fuels, Lars is keen to progress and improve efficiency and flexibility with a new pump station and valve management: “It is important

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PROFILE

Ventspils Nafta Terminals (VNT)

Other major modernisation projects include the capability of performing blending operations (blending different grades of products for particular markets)

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to add value by increasing flexibility through product segregation and having the capabilities to handle different products. We are also looking at our ability to load and unload rail tank cars; we never send full rail tank cars back to CIS countries, but we want to have the versatility to do that in the future.”

The implementation of introducing reverse transshipment services and the development of related infrastructure began in November 2011 in co-operation with the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia. This project involved the acquisition of operational equipment for the loading of crude oil from tankers into rail tank cars, and a connected scrubber for related vapor recovery.

Other major modernisation projects include the capability of performing blending operations (blending different grades of products for particular markets); the company has also installed a butanisation system (mixing motor gasoline with liquid butane). “If you build a new terminal these days you will cater for in-tank blending and creating added value for customers,” explains Lars. “Our infrastructure, built more than 50 years ago, was not built for this purpose so we are now taking tank pit by tank pit to research a pipeline infrastructure that will enable us to blend from one tank to another tank group. This is a huge development for us because in todays market product blending is everything.” Described as ‘the pipeline spiderweb’, the new pipeline infrastructure will connect with most parts of the company’s operation, from tanks to pump stations, allowing it to transfer the oil product without jeopardising quality.

Looking to the future, Lars anticipates the continued investments and developments within the terminal will ensure sustained

profitable growth. “We would like to keep our market share; it is difficult to compare ourselves with Russian ports at this point, but we can compare our operations and profitability with Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian terminals and ports. Our plan is to not only be the largest terminal in the region, but also the most flexible,” he concludes.

Ventspils Nafta Terminals (VNT) 1.vnt.lv/en/

Services Production and shipment of crude oil and petroleum

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Kuantan Port Consortium

future and is keen to see the port take advantage of the region’s economic fortune. Ideally located on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, KPC is keen to expand on existing trade between the two countries, as chief operating officer Ir. Hj. Khasbullah A. Kadir elaborates: “What sets the port apart from its competitors is its proximity to the Malaysia-China Kuantan Industrial Park (MCKIP). The MCKIP is a sister site to the China-Malaysia Qinzhou Industrial Park in China and these two sites will generate more bilateral trade between Malaysia and China.

Kuantan Port is expected to be the main gateway for this trading channel. The park will boast high value industrial developments like steel mills, aluminum processing plant, edible oil processing plants and other high value industrial developments, which will spur more traffic and cargo throughput for Kuantan Port.”

An integral part of the port’s future could be a deal with Chinese company Guangxi Beibu Gulf International Port Group Co Ltd. The agreement would see a disposal of a 40 per cent stake in KPC for RM310 million by the end of 2013. In return for the stake in the company KPC can expect to see significant investment from Guangxi, with the company set to pour RM7 billion into the MCKIP and surrounding infrastructure, either directly or via joint ventures with Malaysian companies. As of March 2013, IJM and Guangxi have announced that they have entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MoU). The MoU sets the preliminary price of the disposal and is expected

European oil & gas

Since it was last featured

in European Oil and Gas Magazine the Kuantan Port consortium (KPC) has continued to grow and pursue its aim of becoming the leading maritime trade and logistics services centre in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia and the Asia Pacific region by 2020. Operating as a multi-purpose port, strategically placed to enjoy direct shipping lanes with China, the KPC is well positioned to meet its goal. However, recent developments in the region, including economic growth and investment in infrastructure, offer the port and the KPC the opportunity to leverage a fast-track route to becoming the region’s leading logistics centre.

Kuantan Port is owned by the IJM Corporation Berhad, which views China as destined to become the world’s largest economy

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Kuantan Port Consortium

last six months before a definitive agreement is met. During this time the deal must be approved by the Malaysian government, which currently holds a 30-year concession with KPC set to end in 2027. If the deal is approved, the concession will be extended to 60 years, adding a further 46 years to the agreement.

The port has also been identified by the East Coast Economic Region (ECER) master plan as an integrated industrial and logistics hub for the region. The main aim of the ECER is to accelerate growth in the area in a viable, equitable and sustainable manner. The plan identifies tourism, oil, gas and petrochemical, manufacturing, agriculture and education as key drivers in accelerating the region’s growth and aims to compliment existing development schemes. KPC expects the industrial activities to be developed to include the Kuantan Integrated Biopark, bio-fuel industrial cluster, downstream petrochemical cluster, iron and steel industries and automotive cluster. KPC’s close links to China and the recognition it receives from domestic initiatives demonstrate why Kuantan Port is considered the undisputed petrochemical hub in the region, both domestically and internationally.

Kuantan Port is a multi-purpose port operating in all weathers, 24-hours a day, 365 days a year and is able to handle a variety of products including dry bulk cargoes, containers, palm oil, chemicals, petroleum and steel pipes.

To cater to its core customers the KPC works to provide infrastructure and equipment as well as to maintain the port. It treats its customers’ requirements as a top priority and goes to great lengths to ensure that the port offers all of the

facilities its core users need. It is keen know the future needs of its customers and will visit existing and possible future clients to make sure their requirements are fully understood.

The company also has its own marketing team comprised of highly knowledgeable and dedicated staff to drive future business. This level of inter-business communication is a vital component in maintaining Kuantan Port’s position as a key industry hub in the region.

KPC has continued to upgrade and adapt the port to meet the ever-demanding requirements of the palm oil, chemical, container and mineral ore sectors. The port is able to offer palm oil berths, liquid petroleum berths, dedicated chemical berths, dedicated container handling berths, roll-on roll-off berths for vehicles and specialised equipment for handling dry bulk cargoes. It is also able to provide a host of ancillary services including on-dock depot services, fumigation, water supply, bunkering, slop reception and warehousing. Recent developments include an expansion to the port with the construction of a new RM3 billion deepwater terminal, construction of which is expected to be completed within two to three years. The new terminal will double the handling capacity of the port to 52 million FWT and is also designed to attract larger ships to enable the port to become a transshipment hub in the region. To complement this KPC has recently applied for a license to become a supply base, as well to support the development of the oil and gas industries on the east coast of Malaysia.

KPC is currently positioned to take advantage of a huge upturn in momentum. With China remaining strong and Malaysian initiatives providing stimulus to the local economy, Kuantan Port is set to become a powerhouse in the region as Ir. Hj. Khasbullah A. Kadir concludes: “With the Chinese economy still looking robust and demand for raw materials still strong, Kuantan Port is expected to maintain its current growth momentum. We see the next five years as a very exciting time for Kuantan Port. As the current port is reaching its maximum handling capacity, the construction of the new deepwater terminal will ease the congestion as well as fulfilling the demand for bigger ships in tandem with the evolution of shipbuilding. The partnership agreement with the China Guangxi Beibu Gulf Port Group will also bring in new expertise and capabilities which are much sought after to cater to the demands of the new industries in the MCKIP and ECER region.”

Kuantan Port is a multi-purpose port operating in all weathers, 24-hours a day, 365 days a year and is able to handle a variety of products including dry bulk cargoes, containers, palm oil, chemicals, petroleum and steel pipes Liraship Agency Sdn Bhd East Coast Container Services Sdn Bhd Liraship Agency Sdn Bhd is one of the pioneering shipping agents that has witnessed the development and growth of Kuantan Port over the past three decades. Jointly with Kuantan Port in 1989, they brought in the first container vessel to call at Kuantan Port.

In 1992, East Coast Container Services Sdn Bhd (ECCONS) became the first contractor for stuffing/unstuffing at CFS, and stevedoring for container vessels at Kuantan Port.

Kuantan Port Consortium Sdn Bhd kuantanport.com.my

Services Petrochemical hub

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ALE

Pushing

Since its last feature in European Oil & Gas Magazine in 2011, Staffordshire UK based ALE has continued to strive to redefine the limits of what is possible. As an expert in heavy lifting and transport, ALE has utilised its impressive portfolio of equipment and dedicated R&D team to complete mammoth projects worldwide.

In May 2013 ALE competed the world’s heaviest jack-up at the Daewoo shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co. Ltd in Korea.

Conducting the lift for Exxon Neftegaz Limited, ALE utilised the innovative Mega Jack System at 60,000te capacity to lift a final jacking weight of 42,780te. This was the heaviest load ever jacked. The piece is destined to be located in the Arkutun Dagi field off the coast of Russia and is expected to continue to break records as part of the largest oil and gas production platform in the area, with the first production scheduled to begin next year. Regarding the ambitious project, Kees Kompier executive director at ALE commented that: “This pioneering project is a great achievement for ALE and the Mega Jack, which was created by our research and

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boundaries

development team and engineers.

“The load is nearly double the weight of the previous heaviest load, which is a great accomplishment for the company and really shows the capabilities of the Mega Jack. The system itself opens up a whole range of options for our clients and is completely scalable, meaning we can create a system to fit the requirements of projects, becoming more flexible in our capacity and solutions.”

ALE is able to deliver its services globally and often confronts varied and unusual challenges, requiring the specialist knowhow and dedication for which the company has become renowned. In March 2013 the business was tasked with moving a 450tonne farmhouse in the Netherlands, which although one of the company’s smaller lifts, still required the construction of a temporary road to accommodate for poor ground conditions.

The move itself was completed in less than ten hours. Sjak Aerts, engineering manager at ALE commented that while one of ALE’s smaller projects, the move still required precision planning from the company’s team. “Not

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further enhances the company’s equipment portfolio. The Mega Jack is centrally operated by way of a fully computerised system, which includes data logging, weather data and optimal dimensional surveys. Of further benefit is the fact that the Mega Jack is stroke controlled and establishes stability from its jacking foundation.

This means that vast bracing structures and costly welding works to secure the platform are no longer required. Likewise, welding and cutting works carried out at high level are completely eliminated by the Mega Jack’s lowlevel feed-in system for inserting jacking beams.

Critical to the company’s success is its investment in its people as well as its equipment. ALE boasts a world-class management structure focused on supporting the company’s technical potential. This means that as well as being able to call on the best project managers and engineers today, the business will also be able to call on the best in the future. This way ALE aims to continue to build strong, long-term strategic partnerships as well as effectively meet the changing needs of its strategic partners and customers.

The ability of ALE to consistently and effectively push boundaries while meeting the challenges of its customers was recognised by the Australian Business Journal in 2012 when it awarded ALE a runners up position in it’s highly competitive Innovation Awards, citing the Modular Mega Jack as an industry first for its ability for move modules of 60,000 tons comfortably. Also among the innovations listed were the AL. SK350 – the highest-capacity land-based lifting machine in the world.

Commenting on the awards ALE stated that it invests in creativity and ingenuity rather then mass commodities.

The R&D team at ALE is responsible for the recordbreaking AL.SK190 and AL.SK350 cranes, which have the capacity to lift up to 5000te. Its Mega Jack, which was instrumental in the world’s heaviest jack-up earlier this year, further enhances the company’s equipment portfolio

ContainerPLUS+ ContainerPLUS+ is a reliable partner that has many years of experience in the ISO-container industry, and has specialised in the supply of new standard and special ISO-containers ex-stock or directly from the manufacturer. Containers can be modified according to customer’s requirements.

We have many years of experience in dealing with ALE and we are pleased that it is possible to develop products by sharing thoughts and ideas.

This we find very encouraging as it actually makes us feel part of the process.

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Services Heavy lift and transportation

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only was this someone’s home, we also had the integrity of the building to accommodate for. The team overcame this through careful planning and ensuring that every detail of the move was planned and surveyed beforehand.”

To offer a complete solution for lifting, transporting, installing, ballasting, jacking and weighing large, heavy loads across the world ALE focuses on its core engineering principles to ensure the needs of every situation are met.

ALE takes pride in being able to offer ingenuity, responsibility and flexibility, ensuring the unquestioned quality of its process while making sure that risk is kept to an absolute minimum.

The company strives to remain agile and able to adapt to the ever-changing needs of the oil and gas industry.

Essential to meeting ALE’s core principles is the company’s dedicated research and development team and its commitment to investing in new technology within the industry.

The R&D team at ALE is responsible for the record-breaking AL.SK190 and AL.SK350 cranes, which have the capacity to lift up to 5000te. Its Mega Jack, which was instrumental in the world’s heaviest jack-up earlier this year,

ALE

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growth

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offices through the UAE, Seven Seas Services is a leading specialist contracting company that provides services in the marine, offshore and building construction industry. The company, which is part of the Seven Seas Services Group, employs a team of dedicated and highly skilled and experienced design, services and sales engineers and project supervisors, which enables it to offer services across the entire Middle East Gulf region.

It is just under a year since Seven Seas Services was featured in European Oil and Gas Magazine.

At that time (November 2012) the company was firmly dedicated to continued growth, while securing its already strong reputation across the Middle East Gulf. Shahvir Sidhwa, business development director, recently highlighted some of the key developments that have happened in the company.

“One of the biggest recent developments is

that we are in the process of relocating to new office facilities,” he said. “While this is part of our natural growth, it is largely down to the fact that we have expanded quite a lot, having gone from having roughly 50 office staff to around

75 now, so the new offices will allow us to accommodate that, as well as increasing our site workforce to around 250 workers.

“At the same time, we have also been expanding our workshop facilities quite significantly with new machinery, tools and equipment in line with our growth. In terms of the new equipment, it includes the introduction of new CNC machines, which we mainly use for the fabrication of various furnishings, equipment and similar items that we use in our living accommodation solutions. There have been other introductions, so looking at galley equipment for example; we have invested in stainless steel cutters, as well as a lot of new equipment for our carpentry department. Again, that will be used for a lot of interior and soft furniture items that we develop, so beds and other similar items. It all serves to improve our operations and our efficiency within our workshops. Take the new CNC machine for example, before some of that work would have been a manual operation, so the benefits are obvious.”

This growth has been part of the natural development of Seven Seas Services. The company is already a leader in the region, with its name synonymous with quality and efficient project delivery. As Shahvir explained, being a part of the Seven Seas Services Group has been a key part of the successful development. “The main benefits that we find are the financial strength that the group has,” he says. “Seven Seas Services is just one division of the overall group, which is quite financially strong. Apart from the financial strength the corporate structure of the group gives us advantages too. It is well structured, which makes it very easy when new investments need to be made and approved. It’s not like a big public company for example, where we would need to go through various committees

looking to expand in the Saudi Arabian market.

We don’t have a full presence there but are looking for a suitable partner to be working with.

I think it will be a key growth area, particularly as the Saudi Government is looking to conduct more marine jobs locally rather than exporting work, which is the current situation. We have been in talks with Daman Shipyard to open a workshop in order to build up a small presence to begin with, and if we can build our business there we will certainly grow in that sector.

“Over the coming years we will largely focus on continuing to grow. We have always been a contractor for accommodation modules but whereas before we have always done just the interior the industry is moving towards more end-to-end solutions. In order to meet that demand we will move toward becoming a more complete provider, offering a total modular accommodation system where we can provide the complete service to our clients. That is where I see us progressing to for the foreseeable future,” he concluded.

Seven Seas Services LLC sevenseasservices.com

Services Specialist contracting services

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or stages to get a decision approved, but rather they can be made quickly and effectively for the benefit of the whole organisation.”

Seven Seas Services provides a wide range of services to clients in the marine, offshore and construction industries. The company is able to supply and install a variety of solutions, largely for offshore rigs and platforms, but also for offshore vessels. Its large portfolio includes traditional items such as turnkey accommodation solutions, galleys, laundry rooms, windows, fire doors and cabin doors, ceilings and walls, toilet and shower modules, and associated services and equipment.

However, as Shahvir explained, the company continuously looks to develop new areas to exploit market opportunities. “We have recently started manufacturing helidecks, becoming one of the first companies in the Middle East to start building them out of aluminium. Companies are now looking at using aluminium helidecks instead of steel, largely because of the weight savings they can gain. As a consequence clients have looked further at how they can use aluminium instead of steel in other areas, so this is something new that we have moved into. We’ve started aluminium fabrication, so alongside helidecks we’ve looked at other types of aluminium fabrication, such as buildings, accommodation units, modules and other products.”

Due to its extensive range of services and solutions, the company is regularly contracted by some of the leading names in the industry for large projects. One example is the DOLWIN-2 development, which is the largest offshore wind platform structure ever commissioned. “This is a project that we worked on with Dubai Drydocks World, and it really is a key project for not only us, but for Drydocks World and the region as a whole. It is one of the first major NORSOKspecification projects to have been given to this region – usually these projects are given to companies in Germany or Norway for example – so it is quite a prestigious project to be working on. It also means that we have had to fulfil quite a steep learning curve in terms of working to the NORSOK specifications, but ultimately is quite a feather in our cap in terms of moving forwards.”

When it comes to the future, the business is targeting further growth over the coming years. “Naturally we are looking at moving into new markets and regions,” said Shahvir. “For example, we have been co-operating on some projects with Saudi Aramco recently as we are

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Essar Oil

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Below Iftikhar Nasir, CEO of E&P

is a subsidiary of Essar Energy, the London-listed oil and gas and power company, which currently has 741,000 barrels per day of refining capacity, mainly at its large refineries at Vadinar, India and Stanlow, UK. Essar Oil also has a growing exploration and production business with large potential, including a global portfolio of 15 onshore and offshore oil and gas blocks spanning approximately 35,000 square kilometres. Essar Oil has a network of over 1400 fuel retail outlets across India, with a further 200 in various stages of commissioning, while on the power side, Essar Energy also has a generation portfolio currently totaling 3910MW of capacity, with a further 2890MW in various stages of construction.

Essar Oil’s business is very much focused on India, and although its exploration and production (E&P) activity includes blocks in Nigeria, Madagascar, Indonesia, and Vietnam, the current focus is on developing its assets within India. Overall, the E&P portfolio equates to 2.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent of reserves and resources. “The assets outside of India are in the conventional space, so classic oil and gas exploration, whilst in India there is a mix of unconventional and conventional prospects,” describes Ifty Nasir, CEO of E&P. “On the conventional side we have four blocks, one is in offshore Mumbai, one in the Cambay Basin, and a couple in Assam to the east of the country. When it comes to the unconventional hydrocarbons these are predominantly in the form of coal-bed methane (CBM) located in the east,” he continues.

Although all of Essar Oil’s E&P businesses are considered important, at present more attention is being given over to India where the company is currently developing its first coal bed methane asset, the Raniganj block in West Bengal. “CBM has been around for a long time, but there are very few true economic developments in India,” elaborates Ifty. “Aside from our Raniganj block, the other producer in India is Great Eastern

Energy Corporation Limited, with their block a little further to the west. Theirs is a more paced and steady production growth, typical for CBM projects. Raniganj has a far faster development phase that should have a production profile not dissimilar to a conventional oil and gas field.

“We are achieving this through a much higher rate of drilling and hydrofracturing than would normally be the case in CBM developments, having drilled over 100 wells in the last year and with plans to do a couple of hundred more in the coming one. This results in efficiencies that come with a critical mass of activity, and accelerated production, which improves the economics,” he continues.

The second project that Essar Oil is pursuing is the conventional oil block in the Cambay Basin. “As an oil prospect it’s probably not the most exciting, but below the oil horizon we believe there is serious shale gas potential, which we’ll also be looking to develop in due course,” highlights Ifty. “This is not part of the reserves that are in the books, it’s something that is pretty new and that we believe has great potential.”

He continues with how Essar Oil will be looking to maintain a mix of both unconventional and conventional assets in its E&P portfolio long-term: “It’s important to have both sides because there’s the potential for cross-pollination of ideas, and optimisation. This is particularly true if we are looking at a future where the government allows what they call a simultaneous development. This is a policy that is in progress, and essentially enables an operator to not only exploit a certain set of horizons or resources, be that coal, oil or shale for example, but to develop all the hydrocarbons within that geographic location.”

That said Essar is also looking to become one of the leaders in the unconventional industry in India, and is already well thought of in that respect. This aspiration can be seen in the company’s formation of a new CBM and Unconventional Resource centre in West Bengal to support the unconventional sector. This includes exploring specialised types of drilling and hydrofracturing, as well as managing surface risks and minimising environmental impacts.

A number of other crucial developments have been taking place in India as of late. These include moves by the Indian Government to develop a policy on shale oil and gas, which has been in the works for sometime, and announcements that Ifty believes are of importance to the progression of the business: “The government has just declared the new gas price policy which has moved from $4.2 per million British thermal

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Essar Oil will be looking to maintain a mix of both unconventional and conventional assets in its E&P portfolio long-term: “It’s important to have both sides because there’s the potential for cross-pollination of ideas, and optimisation

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is imported. It will also help India to develop this sector through both domestic and foreign direct investment,” he notes.

Increasing amounts of gas also enables energy consumers in the country to switch over from other types of fuel such as diesel, which are more expensive and more environmentally damaging, making businesses more competitive.

Likewise with methane considered the cleanest of all the hydrocarbons, this shift will allow India to progressively move towards a lower emission environment.

Reflecting on the direction of Essar Oil’s E&P business in the coming years, Ifty describes how it closely reflects its current attention split: “The near-term focus is very much about exploiting and developing the assets we currently have in our portfolio, building a solid platform/ foundation on which to build new opportunities.

This includes being able to bring other partners into the assets we already hold through farmdowns and strategic partnerships in and outside of India. It also allows us to explore the potential for other geographies through joint venture, or farm-down partners that may come to work with us in India.”

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units (mmbtu) to $8.4 per mmbtu. It’s a policy, but a move which results in a far more competitive price both for the producer and consumer. Simply put, the price is derived through a combination of international gas prices in established markets, where gas to gas competition already exists, and landed LNG prices. This will be applicable from April 2014, however if it were effected today, it would result in a gas price of circa $6.83/mmbtu based on assumed regression of the Rangarajan report recommendations upon which this gas policy was based. This policy should help encourage more players into exploring and producing gas in India, thereby reducing the average cost of gas in the country.

“This should incentivise investors to come into India and start exploring and developing the gas reserves in particular. India is very short on gas, with circa 60 per cent currently imported, which puts pressure on foreign exchange reserves, as well as making it vulnerable to market spot price which is presently over $16.

As such developing oil and gas in-country does a number of things. Firstly it presents a source of gas that is significantly cheaper than that which

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PROFILE

Ugland Construction

package Dalian Shipyard Industrial Development General Corporation (DSIDGC) is the subsidiary of Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd (DSIC) which is one of the biggest, most reliable shipyards in China. Relying on advanced design and excellent quality, DSIDGC has become the major supplier for Ugland Construction AS in Norway. In the past decade, DSIDGC has built and delivered to Ugland Construction AS a total of ten vessels. These are semisubmersible barges, flattop barges, including the recently delivered two new generation North Sea flattop barges. DSIDGC’s clients are worldwide, but mainly from various countries and regions in Europe, America and Asia.

Family owned, but globally active, J.J. Ugland is based in the historic shipping town of Grimstad in Norway. The Group consists of a number of different companies, which between them incorporate a professionally managed and fully integrated ship owning and management enterprise, full-service EPC yard, and offshore operation.

Of these Stavanger-based Ugland Construction AS was incorporated back in 1997, since which time it has co-ordinated the Group’s present marine offshore activities. This includes commercial management of a fleet of flat-top barges in sizes between 10,000 and 16,000 dwt, and a self-propelled heavy lift crane vessel. Before that the Group was home to another company named Ugland Construction Company, which was even more involved in the offshore business through offshore derrick crane vessels, anchor handling tugs, accommodation rigs and the like.

These assets are used in marine transportation and inshore lifting operations for oil and gas companies, offshore contractors, fabrication yards, shipping and engineering companies, and harbour authorities. The company also works closely with the Group EPC yard, AS Nymo, on various projects. With a lifting capacity of 600 tonnes, the crane vessel is employed in a range of assignments for the offshore industry, as well as harbour developments, bridge building, salvage and shipbuilding.

This is mainly in the vicinity of the North

Sea, but Ugland Construction AS has also had a presence in the Gulf of Mexico for the last 15 years where it maintains a berth place.

Furthermore, from time-to-time the company also operates off West Africa.

“For the time being we are operating one crane vessel and 21 cargo barges on behalf of our Group. Ugland Construction AS does not own equipment, we are a managing company, so the vessels are typically owned by Ugland Shipping and other Ugland companies,” explains Øyvind Aasland, managing director.

This includes two brand new barges, which were built at the Dalian Shipyard in China, and delivered recently. The barges are sisters of previously ordered barges from the yard, but have an upgraded deck strength of 30 tonnes per square metre. “Of the 21 vessels we have, 18 are standard 300 by 90 foot barges and these two new builds are the same,” notes Øyvind. “What is different though is that they are fitted with a state-of-the-art built-in ballast water treatment system. This is something new for this tonnage and has come about as a result of the new IMO rules that are being presented to the market regarding environmental impact.”

At the end of 2012 Ugland Construction AS also became home to another seven large North Sea barges through the purchase of Viking’s entire barge fleet. Built in Russia throughout 1994 and 1999, these Lloyd classed barges are the same dimensions as the two new builds.

Also of note are Ugland Construction’s two fully

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Ugland Construction

submersible barges, which add a further level of flexibility to the fleet.

Increasingly though Ugland Construction AS is looking at offering more in the way of turnkey project solutions as a whole, as opposed to purely chartering of assets. “We want to tailor marine transportation solutions into a package that meets the client’s needs,” emphasises Tommy Christensen, project manager. “This could be the provision of the whole marine transport supply chain from A to B, or any one element of it, such as parts, storage, sea fastening, engineering, grillage fabrication, and loading. This also reduces the risk for the client by increasing the scope that we can manage on a project as a one-stop-shop package, and therefore removing some of the additional interfaces with other parties.”

To deliver this Ugland Construction AS will work with a number of partners both internally and externally. Within the Group this could be AS Nymo for the fabrication of grillage and sea fastening for the modules, whilst the rest will be third party companies that Ugland Construction AS has longstanding relationships with.

Although it’s a new area of focus for the business, project solutions is not unknown to Ugland Construction AS. In the past the company has delivered such services for the Statoil LNG receiving terminal at Melkøya, as part of the Snøhvit Field development. This was throughout 2004 and 2005, but in the years that followed Ugland Construction AS concentrated its efforts into the chartering activities. The company is now looking to pick up the total transportation concept again, and is actively bidding for works to this end.

For larger companies and contractors in particular the ability to secure all their marine transportation requirements from one source is no doubt attractive, and for Ugland Construction AS bringing together its partners to offer such a service opens up new areas for the business to capitalise on. The company isn’t leaving its chartering services behind though as these will continue to make up its largest area of operations, as well as being the assets that will feed into the project solutions side.

“As always this year is focused on chartering of the barges, and the crane vessel which is scheduled for an extensive list of operations including installation of bridges and in-shore lifting. On the barge side we are predominately

working in oil and gas but the wind farm market is also an essential part of these elements. We already have a substantial fleet so we don’t foresee any special expansions of equipment going forward. It’s a case now of operating these assets to the optimum through the delivery of these project solutions,” concludes Øyvind.

Ugland Construction AS jjuc.no

Services Vessel operation and project solutions

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Kongsberg Maritime

Above Hugin AUV

Above Kongsberg employees Right KM customer support Below Dave Shand beside test tank

integrated automation, safety and information management systems for both the production, drilling and quarters (PDQ) platform and the floating storage unit (FSU), the latter also having positioning and marine systems.

Kongsberg Maritime’s UK division will provide project-engineering resource, along with colleagues in Norway and Korea, and support the installation during production. “Participating in potentially the largest development in the UKCS is a great achievement for us,” enthuses David. “This project will allow us to further develop our project and support capability in offshore production automation and safety systems in the UK, which, combined with our Kongsberg Maritime Engineering Division in the Far East, will enable us to deliver further greenfield and brownfield projects in the UKCS.

Another area we will continue to recruit for in the UK is the support of our AUV (autonomous underwater vehicles) product lines.”

Following the group’s acquisition of Hydroid a number of years ago, it has become a world leader in the field of AUVs, a technology that is finding increasing application in offshore inspection for both oil and gas and renewable markets. The company offers an AUV rental service to its customers and will be announcing new developments in its AUV technology later this year.

In response to the offshore division’s

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Kongsberg Maritime

is renowned for delivering innovative systems in the offshore, subsea and merchant marine markets. “Our division of Kongsberg Maritime provides sales, project support and customer services such as training and field support in the UK,” says David Shand, general manager of Kongsberg Maritime’s Offshore Division in the UK. “We live and breathe our core values, which are determination, reliability, collaboration and innovation, all of which enable us to provide state-of-the-art, reliable technology and excellent support to our diverse range of customers that range from offshore renewable developers to offshore production companies.”

Providing global support from local service and support facilities at strategic locations around the world such as Aberdeen, New Orleans, Rio de Janeiro, Singapore and Dubai, Kongsberg Maritime has enjoyed an increase in demand over recent years. This has resulted in the continued recruitment of a significant number of engineers and support staff at the group’s UK based offshore division since early 2012 as well as expansion into new business areas. “Due to further growth in several areas of our business we plan to continue to recruit more staff, particularly project support and field support,” says David. “One area where we have recruited engineering staff is in offshore production automation and safety systems, where we are supporting a number of installations in the UK sector; we have also been recruiting engineers in this business area in preparation for the build up of the Statoil Mariner project and will continue with further recruitment for the project and support phase.”

For the Statoil Mariner project, the largest new offshore development in the UK in more than a decade, Kongsberg Maritime will supply

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further develop training in subsea systems, such as AUVs and also in offshore production systems,” explains David.

Launching a new era for Kongsberg Maritime in the UK, the new facilities cement the group’s commitment to invest in its personnel, customers and future; it also offers a high quality working environment, a huge advantage in a competitive market, as David concludes: “In today’s environment, particularly in Aberdeen, resourcing new staff can be difficult. However, we believe that we offer an excellent working environment, great career opportunities and challenging roles. Many of our engineering positions are for electronics or software graduates, both of which are in short supply due to the relatively small number of graduates in each of these disciplines. To address this issue we have established scholarships at several universities in the UK, including the local universities. Our scholarships give much needed funding for the ‘Kongsberg scholars’ as well as summer placements, which offer industry experience. We have already recruited excellent graduates from our scholarship scheme.”

Ledingham Chalmers Ledingham Chalmers has played an important role on the Scottish legal scene for many years, with the firm’s development tracking Aberdeen’s emergence as the capital of the European oil and gas exploration and production sector and as a centre of excellence for professional services. We are proud to have supported Kongsberg Maritime as its presence in Scotland has strengthened, from advising on property matters through to a range of support on corporate matters, alongside bespoke contract training for key members of the Kongsberg team.

Kongsberg Maritime Ltd km.kongsberg.com

Services Turnkey solutions within the oil and gas industry

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continuing success and unprecedented growth, Kongsberg Maritime announced an investment of £2 million in the long-term lease of new premises in Westhill, Aberdeen in February 2012. The purpose-built property includes a bespoke 45 metre cubed test tank, the first of its kind in Aberdeen, and the most technologically advanced dynamic positioning simulator on the market. Moreover, the Kongsberg Maritime Training and Simulation Centre takes up an entire floor at the new building, increasing its original floor space by 60 per cent and enabling the group to train more individuals.

Scheduled training courses at the division’s Aberdeen premises include an overview of planned automation systems, dynamic positioning and subsea positioning systems.

Courses are designed to give participants an enhanced understanding and detailed product knowledge and may include both operational and technical training. “We plan to further develop our training centre to support our systems, and this will require additional training staff to support the improvements in our course offerings in DP operations and

Kongsberg Maritime

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provider

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World class

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One of the world’s leading

Clearly the potential of LNG as a fuel source is massive, and as projects such as these indicate there is still much in the way of development taking place around this

manufacturers of cryogenic equipment for the storage, transportation and handling of liquefied gases, Cryo AB has long been at the forefront of this market having developed its first tank in the 1950s. It’s an area that has become the subject of greater focus as liquefied natural gas (LNG) grows as a fuel source.

An independent company belonging to the Linde Engineering Division, Cryo AB gains several advantages from its parent business as managing director Lars Persson explains: “We have direct access to leading experts in the cryogenic field. Having a strong mother company also enables us to go for larger projects, which wouldn’t be possible without

strong financial backing. Linde also has global functions such as construction, manufacturing and procurement so we gain synergies in many fields. We are a relatively small local operator, so this opens the door to many global markets.”

Based as it is in Gothenburg, Sweden, Cryo AB built a lot of its expertise in the Scandinavian and Nordic countries, and continues to lead projects in these markets today. Notably in 2011 the company completed Sweden’s first LNG receiving terminal project. It’s an area where it has continued to secure work in, including a new project for Scangas.

“This is the second LNG receiving terminal that Cryo AB has built of this magnitude, and once complete will be the biggest facility of its type in Sweden,” describes Lars. “The project is progressing very well with a target for mechanical completion of early next year.

We also see opportunities for other upcoming projects of this size in Scandinavia, so this will serve as a good reference for those.”

As well as plants, another side of the business that is growing strongly is distribution equipment. This has sparked considerable investment into development by Cryo AB with a number of new products now coming to market.

This includes the world’s biggest vacuum insulated tank with a capacity of 1250 m3, and the largest LNG semi-trailer on the market to transport up to 60 tonnes of product.

At the same time Cryo AB has launched a new

It’s a market that Cryo AB is following on a global basis, as Lars concludes: “We want to be a world class provider of EPC services for LNG terminals in Scandinavia, and a supplier of leading and innovative onboard LNG fuel tanks, bunker systems and related solutions to the global marine industry. We will also continue with our distribution equipment arm and other developments borne out of our experience in cryogenics.”

Cryo AB cryo.se

Products Cryogenic equipment

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trailer with the lowest centre of gravity available, which offers superior road handling. Investment has not only been into new innovations though.

The company has also upgraded its helium tank container production facilities in the wake of the success of this product to enable it to produce more than 50 units per annum.

“We have extensive cryogenic know-how having been present in the market since it began,” highlights Lars. “The combination of this with our core technology and production capabilities gives us a very strong proposition.

We also focus on offering complete solutions to the client including after sales services such as education, maintenance and support.”

One market where Cryo AB has found significant scope for its capabilities, particularly in LNG, is the maritime sector. For over 12 years the company has supplied energy fuel tanks for vessels such as ferries and supply ships to run on LNG, which has both economic and environmental benefits.

This has since been extended to smaller ships with the company’s development of the world’s first marine LNG fuel system for tug boats. The vessels were ordered by the Norwegian marine services company Buksér og Berging AS to go into service in late 2013. The system has been designed specifically to minimise the space needed for such equipment onboard the vessel, which opens up the LNG fuel market to even small ships.

“This was a unique system that enables the boat to purely run on LNG, as opposed to a dual fuel set-up, and therefore minimises the need to carry different types of fuel. The solution has been of interest for smaller coastal vessels such as tug boats and passenger ships, as its the first time that they have been able to exploit this fuel, so we expect this to grow further,” explains Lars.

Going one step further, earlier this year Cryo AB delivered the world’ first LNG bunkering ship, which operates within the Port of Stockholm providing LNG fuel to Viking Line’s new Viking Grace dual fuel passenger ferry and other such vessels. This pioneering project was undertaken for AGA and involved the conversion of a former ferry into the bunker boat, which has since been christened Seagas.

Clearly the potential of LNG as a fuel source is massive, and as projects such as these indicate there is still much in the way of development taking place around this.

Cryo

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information Established in 1948, ms Neumann Elektronik GmbH is a privately-owned, medium-sized enterprise with international subsidiaries and close working relationships with reliable partner companies. As a system house ms Neumann Elektronik is one of the leading suppliers worldwide for high-quality solutions in information and safety, public address (PA), acoustic and video, and its modular products are used wherever high safety standards are needed.

The company offers an extensive portfolio of fully automatic, digital public address (PA) systems, information and emergency call systems, ranging from plant alarm systems to complete management systems for process automation, which can be found in a wide range of industrial settings as well as the rail and public transport sectors. Moreover, the information and safety systems developed and produced by ms Neumann Elektronik are available in a range of sizes for a variety of applications, and for critical zones and harsh environments.

Three of the technically demanding sectors in which ms Neumann Elektronik’s special information and safety systems are being put to good use are the oil, gas and coal mining

industries. For decades, customers all over the world have come to trust these systems, which are able to provide comprehensive emergency and danger-alert management even at the most remote places, such as offshore oil rigs or pipelines.

To span the distances between the work sites and the control centre, which are often quite significant, radio and satellite technologies are often used. All terminal equipment is designed for use in environments where there is the danger of explosion, and it is made to be highly reliable.

Indeed, one of the main benefits of the systems manufactured by ms Neumann Elektronik for use in the oil and gas sector is their reliability. This applies to its highperformance systems for large area coverage with high-powered PA and visual signalling, systems for high-quality voice communication in areas with danger of explosion, and efficient monitoring and surveillance systems.

The company has built up an extensive client portfolio over the 65 years it has been operating, and its references for oil and gas projects includes blue-chip companies from a diverse

support customers through the whole process of buying a system, starting with the analysis of their current situation, through consultation, documentation, up to implementation and continuing into the maintenance of an individual application. In order to ensure optimal, troublefree operation of a system, it also offers clients a comprehensive service and support portfolio.

As an internationally successful supplier of solutions, ms Neumann Elektronik has created a name that is recognised the world over and is highly regarded for its combination of traditional strengths and innovative excellence. Over the course of its history, it has grown from a small business into a successful enterprise thanks to a dedication to innovation, a culture of hard work and a resolve to grow its presence worldwide.

Going forwards, it has even more expansion plans, with visions for Brazil, Africa, South Korea and Japan over the next two years, as well as continuing to support its local partner in the Russian oil and gas sector. If the company applies its usual determination to these new ventures, there seems little doubt that it will continue to see more growth well into the future.

For decades, customers all over the world have come to trust these systems, which are able to provide comprehensive emergency and danger-alert management ms Neumann Elektronik neumann-elektronik.com

Services Information and safety, PA, acoustic and video solutions

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range of locations, including AGIP Gas, Libya; Oil Platform Zirku-Island, Zakum Development Company/Abu Dhabi National Oil Cooperation (oil-producing company), UAE; CPCL Refinery, Chennai, India; PKN Orlen Olefine, Poland; Bharat Petroleum, India; and Oil Refinery ‘Reliance’, Jamnagar, India. It also works with a range of sophisticated and modern suppliers, such as Telecom Systems.

One of its flagship projects in the oil and gas sector was with BP, on a modern and innovative IP-based factory-wide alarm system. This called for a comprehensive solution for evacuations with a central fire brigade alarm call station, and combined five decentralised DS-6 subsystems into the overall system TIMM. The individual DS-6 systems are calibrated especially for evacuation systems in accordance with the standards VDE 0828 and EN 60849. Of greatest importance, the system’s crucial safety-relevant feature lies in the fact that its self-sufficient subsystems automatically take over all functions for their relevant alarm zones in case the higherlevel network breaks down.

Another important development for the company occurred early in 2012, when it announced that it had been chosen to deliver the innovative IP-based DS-6 system for sound, intercom and alarm on behalf of the Group ‘Turkmengaz’. The gas field, South Yoloten, is located in the south eastern part of Turkmenistan near the border with Iran and Afghanistan.

The area spreads about 3000 km², and as such it is rated as the second largest gas field in the world. In this high explosive area safety plays an important role, and ms Neumann’s modern IP-based DS-6 systems are designed redundantly in five different places because of their reliability.

The deciding factors for the award of the contract to ms Neumann Elektronik have been highlighted as its customised system solutions, the high functionality and quality of its facilities and the general competitiveness of its products and services.

As well as manufacturing and supplying stateof-the-art systems, the company is also able to

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quality One-stop

Established in 1995

Wood Group Engineering Services (Middle East) Wood Group Engineering Services (WGES) was established in 1993 to offer comprehensive engineering services to the MENA region and now operates from three workshops located in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha.

These workshops provide a wide range of services including the manufacture and repair of API products, overhaul services for pumps, compressors, industrial gas turbines and general oilfield equipment, reverse engineering, rotor balancing and an extensive field service capability.

WGES has successfully developed its relationship with Top Oilfield Industries over several years and looks forward to continuing to providing support to it, and all our many other valued clients for many years to come.

, as Top Oilfield Engineering Services, Top Oilfield Industries Limited has become a leader in land rig refurbishment, oilfield drilling equipment manufacture, repair, overhaul and modification.

Based in Sharjah, UAE, Top Oilfield Industries Limited is perfectly located to meet the needs of drilling contractors operating in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

The company’s facilities currently comprise of 30,000 square meters of fabrication yards, 59,000 square meters of land rigcommissioning and rig up yards, management offices and storage areas and 65,000 square feet of workshops. The company boasts an impeccable record of high quality and costeffective oilfield refurbishment work completed in a timely fashion. Targeting oil and gas contractors and NOCs and placing quality at the forefront of its business, the company is dedicated to going to extraordinary lengths to ensure customer satisfaction.

Operating as an API and ISO accredited company and employing an in-house training and mentoring programme, Top Oilfield Industries Limited strives to be the leading name

in rig support and maintenance solutions as CEO Ian Midgley explains: “Since its creation Top Oilfield has always sought to improve and develop its product and service lines in order to better support its customers and achieve its longterm vision of becoming the service provider of choice for drilling contractors active in the Middle East and beyond.

“We provide in-house training and mentoring schemes and start by only targeting and recruiting highly skilled, experienced and motivated personnel. This enables a high degree of cross and up skilling within the workforce.

Many of our staff have been with us for more than ten years.”

Ian observes that the company’s competitive edge is founded on excellence built on providing fast, highly competitive and reliable services to the company’s target base. He notes: “The proof is the fact that we have a very high retention rate and our base continues to grow. We provide bespoke services but with a standard price list.”

Also key to the company’s success is the one-stop-shop approach that it provides for its customers. Top Oilfield Industries Limited believes that the key benefit of providing a one-stop service to clients is in streamlining communication between third parties, allowing projects to be completed in a timely and cost-effective fashion. Ian elaborates: “Our customer base ranges from very large multinational corporations to smaller more regional operations, all of whom benefit by being able to deal with one service provider for the majority of the works they have at any particular time. Because the vast majority of the work is undertaken in-house we ensure highend production standards, adherence to delivery dates and excellent cost control.

“The regional clients have the convenience of not having to get involved in time-consuming correspondence with a number of companies and the convenience of a single point of contact.

For the larger clients there is the same benefit, but with potentially much higher cost savings due to their much higher cost base.”

Another part of the company’s one-stop approach is its ability to provide a diverse and adaptable service. Able to provide services ranging from land rig and jack-up rig refurbishments, equipment manufacture and design and technical field support, Top Oilfield Industries Limited is well placed to support its customers. Ian says: “Top Oilfield is fully committed to providing our customers with high performance products and services and we have demonstrated our ability to deliver all of the

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Top Oilfield Industries

projects we undertake to the highest quality, on time and at the most competitive industry rates anywhere. We have recently delivered a USD 30 million jack up refurbishment project which, due to the condition of the rig when it arrived in our shipyard, required our marine project teams to ‘pull out all of the stops’ to ensure the vessel left our facility ready to drill and provide many years of service for our customer.

“Our land rig division is currently undertaking full re-build/remanufacture of three 1500 hp rigs; these ‘all western’ units are a mixture of new and refurbished components.

Our ability to mix and match new elements with refurbished parts allows Top Oilfield to produce high caliber rigs for our customers within their budgets.”

Since 2007 the company has enjoyed continued growth as its efforts have been rewarded. Moving forward it has opened new workshops in Mumbai and signed a joint venture contract with a company in Saudi Arabia, reflecting the growing regional demand for rig support. Ian confirms, “We have gradually broken into the highly competitive market in India where the Top Oilfield brand was known by the large international players, but the major Indian players had to be wooed. We started with some small jobs and we are now building momentum. We have used one location for works since we opened and got our first work.

We are nevertheless searching for an even better location to improve our ability to meet our customer’s needs.

“We see the Saudi market as a critical part of our future business, however there is no point in entering such a market until your operation has the strength to be able to choose the best possible partner and meet the inevitable demands from such a strong and fast growing market. We believe that we have found such a partner in the Al-Bassam Group. We have founded our JV, which is currently in the process of being licensed through SAGIA. We plan to roll out our services in the pre-licensed period through a temporary partnership with one of the Al-Bassam operating companies, Gulf Heavy Industries LLC.” Top Oilfield recently achieved two million hours without a lost time injury. Ian explains how this was achieved and the company’s commitment to health and safety. “At Top Oilfield we understand both our moral and the commercial requirement to establish and maintain a strong health safety and

environmental culture, regardless of our geographical locations, in our potentially highrisk industry.

“For us to achieve our objective of world class levels of HSE performance, everyone from the CEO downwards is genuinely committed to driving HSE performance within our organisation. We all know the phrase ‘Safety is everybody’s responsibility’, which predominately is the case, but we know it is the executives and managers that will be key to our success.”

Throughout the rest of 2013 Top Oilfield is committed to growing its regional presence while remaining true to its core principles as Ian concludes: “We continue to concentrate on developing our presence regionally in order to enhance the support we currently provide to customers operating throughout the Middle East, Asia and North African oil/gas producing areas. Coupled with this is our focus on ensuring that our business is fully enabled to provide the products and services which our customers seek.”

Top Oilfield Industries Limited topoilfield.com

Services Oil rig support and maintenance solutions

Ben Line Agencies

First class

support Privately owned

marine services and logistics provider Ben Line Agencies Ltd has been active in Asia for more than 150 years. Operating within four business divisions, liner agency, port agency, offshore logistics and project logistics, the group has expanded its services since its inception as a ship owner in the 19th century and subsequently as a drilling contractor in the 1970s. Boasting more than 100 offices spread across 16 countries in Asia, the group’s comprehensive office network, combined with its history in the region, gives it a major advantage in a competitive market, as Edward Thomson, regional general manager of Ben Line Agencies’ Offshore Support division, explains: “Due to our longevity in the region we have a solid understanding of local operational and customs formalities in each of the countries

that we operate in. Through our vessel and rig owning background we can offer the best possible services in the highly pressurised environments that our clients operate in. We fully appreciate the importance of being available 24/7, the need for flexibility and, above all, the requirement for a proactive approach.”

Working with major operators in the oil and gas industry, such as Maersk, POSH Semco, Fugro, Heerema Marine Contractors, McDermott, Rowan Drilling and Swire Pacific Offshore, Ben Line Agencies recognises that the offshore marine sector is unique and strives to ensure a consistent first class service across a range of target market segments. “We believe in developing long-term partnerships with our clients by offering a consistently high level of service throughout our office network together with bespoke solutions to assist them with specific challenges. As testament to this approach, a number of our key customer relationships go back more than ten years,” says Edward.

The division offers a wide range of services, and target market segments within its offshore support sector include survey, subsea, inspection repair and maintenance (IRM), engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC), drilling contractors, exploration and production (E&P), floating

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last decade to ensure it can take on increased demands from its increasing client base.

Specifically the company has opened up offices in 11 supply bases throughout Asia to cater to the needs of its clients. Most recently, an office has been opened in Ranong port, on the west coast of Thailand next to the border with Myanmar, which acts as an alternative logistics support base to Singapore with offshore support vessels frequently calling there to take bunkers

and supplies and to conduct crew changes.

Furthermore, following a number of positive enquiries from its established customer base, the group has also set up operations in Timor Leste. “Our offshore support services division is certainly a growth market for us. The World Subsea Vessel Operations Market Forecast 2012-2016 noted that $77 billion is to be spent on worldwide subsea vessel operations in those years, an increase of 63 per cent over the previous five year period. We expect to see a significant increase in EPIC projects such as PLEM and SURF subsea installations and also an increase in high capability vessel demand in the region,” says Edward.

With a keen eye for finding new opportunities, Ben Line Agencies is following the development of new sectors within the offshore sector, such as offshore platform decommissioning, offshore wind and wave farms and anticipates an increase in future FSO projects in Asia, as Edward concludes: “According to a recent report by energy industry research and consultancy group Douglas Westwood, the continued expansion into deepwater locations could drive a doubling of worldwide investment in Floating Production Systems over the next five years to $91 billion. A total of 121 floating production units are forecast for installation worldwide during this time period, representing a 37 per cent increase in the fleet. With our recent experience with EMAS AMC and EOCP, we believe we are best placed to participate in future FSO projects in Asia.”

Whether our clients are looking for assistance with costs, local formalities and process flows for their project bids, or a one-stopshop solution for an offshore project installation with multi-site vessel and equipment mobilisations, we have the proven track record to assist them

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production systems (FPSO, FSO, FLNG), oilfield services, as well as subsea power cable installations. “Whether our clients are looking for assistance with costs, local formalities and process flows for their project bids, or a one-stop-shop solution for an offshore project installation with multi-site vessel and equipment mobilisations, we have the proven track record to assist them,” highlights Edward.

Currently providing marine agency and logistics support services to EMAS-AMC and EOCP in connection with the installation of FPSO Perisai Kamelia in PM301 block in the Kamelia Field off Kemaman in the Northern Malay Basin for Hess. EMAS-AMC’s scope of work includes the installation of the mooring system, towage of the FPSO from Singapore to the field and the hook up of the mooring system on behalf of EOCP. “The marine spread for this project consists of the main construction vessel, two tow tugs, two tug and barge sets and a fast crew boat,” says Edward. “We assisted with the mobilisation of the marine spread in Pasir Gudang where the chains, piles and accompanying equipment were prepared and loaded onto the departing vessels. Our scope of work included arranging Petronas and FOMEMA medicals, sign on/off, meet and greets, hotel bookings and the associated transport needs of the project and marine crews, customs, clearance, and the supply of cranes, forklifts and specialist heavy lifting equipment.”

In Kemaman Ben Line Agencies is offering a similar range of offshore support services to ensure EMAS delivers to its customer on time and within budget, as Edward highlights: “Whatever our client requires, we will endeavour to provide a workable and affordable solution as quickly as possible.”

Aware that it is operating in a growth market, Ben Line Agencies has invested heavily in its offshore support services division over the

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Ben Line Agencies benlineagencies.com

Services Specialist marine agency and logistics support

sparks The success of CS Combustion Solutions (CS) has been founded on the skills of a team of experienced professionals who are dedicated to reliability and innovation in the field of combustion technology. The company’s

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employees have over 20 years of experience in the engineering, supply, and commissioning of vertical and horizontal burners and combustors for a variety of applications, including sulphur, spent acid and acid gas; waste gas and waste air; waste water; hazardous and special waste liquids and pasty waste fluids.

CS can also draw on the benefits of being a member of the Unitherm Cemcon Group, a privately owned company with its headquarters in Vienna, Austria. The Unitherm Cemcon enterprise has been working in the cement industry since it was established in 1946, and over the last decades Unitherm Cemcon has gained a reputation as a worldwide leader in rotary kiln burners. As a result, CS can rely on Unitherm’s resources and experience in boiler and rotary kiln burner construction.

What sets CS apart in the market is its unique approach to the combustion process,

which begins with the high-intensity mixing technology that forms the basis of all its process burners. It is the mixing characteristics of these burners and chambers that results in their extreme reliability, and allows customers to achieve the lowest possible emissions. At the same time, CS’ incineration processes have introduced many unique innovations that have led to increasingly economical designs.

CS is proud of the fact that in whatever process its technology is applied, the result will be objective advantages from both operational and cost perspectives. Such advantages include low emissions, excellent flame stability, high turndown ratios, the ability to deal with upstream upset conditions, low maintenance, low lifetime cost and energy cost savings.

The products and services on offer from CS can be divided into four categories – burners, combustors, injection systems and engineering and service. In the first area, CS engineers and supplies burners for special applications with performance ranging between one and 90 MW. The burners are customised and designed according to customer needs and requirements.

Furthermore, the SWB Burner operates on a variety of standard and special fuels, which can be directly injected simultaneously into the burner. These products have applications in a variety of fields, for example, industrial boilers, rotary kilns, fluidised beds, combustors, static incinerators, furnaces and O2-applications.

When it comes to combustors, CS is an expert in the thermal oxidation of liquids, gases and powdered solids derived from by-products in the refinery, petrochemical, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. CS’ team has two decades experience in the design and supply

of thermal oxidisers and firing systems, and as a result, the company can provide clients with a full range of engineering and supply services consisting of: 66 Problem evaluation 66 Layout and design of combustors including firing system and lances 66 Static calculations, CFD – simulations 66 Detailed engineering, selection of the lining materials 66 Manufacturing according to regulations 66 Transport, erection and commissioning

and optimisation of existing combustion processes, consultation for combustion plant operators, and basic and detailed engineering of burners, combustors and incinerators.

When considering the overall package of products and services on offer from CS, it is no surprise to learn the company works with many recognisable names across a variety of industries. These include a contract in 2012 with a well-known refinery in Russia, which included a combustion unit with combustor and fuel feeding lines as well as a waste heat boiler with a steam drum.

Other notable contracts include an Austrian company, which ordered two WSA lines for its plants in India and Indonesia; plus CS has an order for a waste liquid treatment plant in Great Britain.

When fulfilling these contracts, CS often strives for a real partnership, which it aims to turn into a long-term customer relationship.

Overall, CS has a logical methodology, which it applies to its projects – its approach is innovative, solution-oriented, precise, co-operative and reliable.

When it comes to combustors, CS is an expert in the thermal oxidation of liquids, gases and powdered solids derived from by-products in the refinery, petrochemical, chemical and pharmaceutical industries

CS Combustion Solutions comb-sol.at

Services Combustion technology

European oil & gas

Moving onto injection systems, CS selects and engineers the optimal atomising system for the specified application. To ensure the optimal proportion between atomising results and media consumption, CS works with the proven dual fluid premix-nozzle, pressure atomiser nozzle and Ultrasonic nozzle systems.

The predominant atomising fluids to be used are low-pressure steam and compressed air, although it is possible to use other gases such as nitrogen and natural gas. The pressure for the atomiser gas ranges between three and ten bar,

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in accordance with the nozzle system used.

In addition, CS offers lance/nozzle systems for the SWB burner and for the direct injection of fluid into its incinerators. It also offers nozzles for the following applications: 66 Ammonia injection systems for SNCR – plants 66 Flue gas cooling & quenching systems 66 Lime milk injection for semi-dry desulfurisation 66 Process applications for food and chemical industries It is through its fourth offering, engineering and services, that CS supports its clients in engineering and evaluating their projects. The company is able to develop and tailor-make concepts for customers’ special problems. Overall CS provides a very comprehensive engineering and services proposal, which includes evaluation

player

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Brubakken

has a long and well established history as one of the largest and most flexible businesses dealing in the sales, service and rental of forklift trucks, terminal tractors, lifts and lift trucks. The company, which predominantly operates in Norway and Sweden, is one of the industry’s dominant players and represents some of the leading highquality brands in the Nordic region.

Brubakken was established in 1956 and today serves its wide customer base from 17 locations in Norway and three in Sweden, employing around 160 skilled members of staff. Throughout its history the company has been successful at achieving growth and adapting to the market in order to maintain a leading position. Its expansion has been both organic and through acquisitions. In more recent years the company has acquired a number of related businesses that have added value to its operations. In 2008 for example, Brubakken took over most of the bankruptcy estate of AL-Machine, in 2011 it acquired Electrical Construction Equipment in Sandnes, and in 2012 it purchased Inland Truck Service AS. Other highlights during the 2000s have included the company becoming the Worldwide Dealer of the Year for Konecranes (SMV) in 2009 and obtaining the agency for Hubtex in Norway in 2011.

The range of products on offer from Brubakken is vast, encompassing solutions from well-known and highly respected brands such as Nissan, TCM, SMV (Konecranes), Hubtex, JLG, Versa Lift, and Ruth Mann. When it comes to lifting equipment the company’s range covers a variety of applications for all types of work at height, including vertical lifts, scissor lifts, boom lifts, belt lifters and fixed hang mounted platforms.

Brubakken is well known in the industry for its range of forklift trucks, which is its largest area of business. In this field the company acts as a logistics and machine partner for Norwegian industry by selling and renting equipment for all types of functions and tasks. It is one of Norway’s largest leasers of trucks and also has a large number of other machines for rental, such as wheel loaders, logstackers, terminal tractors, reach stackers, international trucks, trailers and other solutions. The business is also a main dealer for Nissan forklifts in the Agder counties of Telemark, Vestfold, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo, Hedmark, Hordaland and Ostfold.

In the field of forklift trucks Brubakken has a number of models to suit various client applications. The company acts as a brandindependent supplier of forklifts and prides itself on providing what the customer wants. Included

At Brubakken, each employee is trained in safety every day in their work in accordance with the highest standards and accreditations.

All employees have full access to the company’s web-based internal control system where all governing documents, HSE manuals, instructions and work practices are readily available. Thanks to its emphasis on HSE the company is pre-qualified as a supplier of products and services to a large number of individual companies, and operates in accordance to the Achilles system on behalf of its members in various industries.

When it comes to truck and lifting solutions Brubakken is able to offer a complete service package to its clients. This dedication to service has enabled the business to grow in its markets and gain an enviable reputation. With Brubakken always looking to add to its range of solutions, and its ongoing focus on improving its workforce and operational procedures there is little doubt that the company will continue to be successful.

When it comes to lifting equipment the company’s range covers a variety of applications for all types of work at height, including vertical lifts, scissor lifts, boom lifts, belt lifters and fixed hang mounted platforms

Brubakken brubakken.no

Services Hires and sells forklift trucks and associated equipment

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in this offering are forklifts from Nissan, SMV Konecranes and TCM. It also offers a range of four-way trucks, which represent a flexible solution for industrial applications. These are four-way side loaders with electric drive that come in load ranges between 1.5 tonnes and 500 tonnes, and can be used for the handling of long goods, sheet metal, tools, cable drums, rollers and large pallets in confined warehouse spaces with rack systems.

They can also be used as free-range trucks for outdoor applications. Included in this category is the Hubtex DQ series, which represents a robust and compact four-way side loading solution for indoor and outdoor use.

For clients in the marine sector, specifically ports, terminals, supply and distribution bases and other heavy industry sites, Brubakken supplies many models of MAFI manufactured terminal tractor. These diesel-powered machines have a capacity up to 45 tonnes and are characterised by their rock-solid construction, their reliability, low noise and efficient energy consumption.

Alongside new equipment Brubakken has a large range of used/second hand equipment, which it sells both to the home market and customers abroad. In its used catalogue Brubakken has a variety of machines and solutions and it also actively trades/brokers machine acquisitions, which allows the client to free up their capital and time by having Brubakken handle redundant or retired machinery.

This level of customer dedication extends to Brubakken’s servicing operations, where the company acts as a service partner for all truck and lift problems that clients may experience.

Brubakken will accept service requests for all brands of machinery and has access to the necessary parts to deal with any problem. Its team of skilled and highly knowledgeable technicians and mechanics all have technical backgrounds and are certified to conduct expert inspections. To simplify the service operation Brubakken has a large parts inventory for all brands that it deals, and is able to source additional parts for repair and servicing.

Considering the equipment that Brubakken deals in it is no surprise that the company places health and safety at the top of its priorities. All of its employees across its sites in Norway and Sweden systematically and continuously improve in all aspects of the organisation, striving for zero targets in damage and errors whilst ensuring 100 per cent customer satisfaction.

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Motherwell Bridge

Highly

reputed European oil & gas

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Brown McFarlane Brown McFarlane is the foremost supplier of pre-fabricated storage tank plates and sections in the British Isles. Our relationship with Motherwell Bridge spans decades and we have been their partner in numerous tank projects during the past twenty years. By offering complete supply of painted, profiled, bevelled and rolled products, we have supported Motherwell Bridge in contracts in such diverse locations as Kazakhstan, Liberia and Nigeria as well as the length and breadth of the United Kingdom.

Brown McFarlane’s Quality Control and Inspection procedures have ensured that, regardless of location, tank assembly has proved to be a trouble-free operation.

since Motherwell Bridge Ltd last appeared in European Oil and Gas, at a time when the business was maintaining its focus on developing in its key markets. Since then the company, which is widely recognised as the world’s leading manufacturer and maintainer of storage tanks, heat exchangers and gasholders, has continued to grow, cementing its position at the forefront of the industry.

In fact, in early 2013 the company, which is based in Lanarkshire, Scotland, announced that it had seen operating profit rise five-fold over the previous two years, largely due to its pursuit of a string of high-profile overseas contracts. For example, the business secured multi-million dollar contracts in Liberia in West Africa, Iraq, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico and India, which effectively saw its order book increase by around 80 per cent.

These projects followed the business strategy set out by Motherwell, which revolved around concentrating on engineering, design and construction of its core products – storage tanks, gasholders and heat exchangers, particularly in West Africa and the developing regions of Brazil and India. This point was reiterated by Russell Ward, chief executive, when last speaking to European Oil and Gas: “As a global player Motherwell Bridge’s focus today, as it relates to its large storage tank business, is largely on the UK, Middle East and West African oil and gas markets,” he confirmed.

“Separately, its gasholder business is focused primarily on the global steel manufacturing industry with a specific emphasis on the Indian, South American and Far East markets.

Meanwhile, Motherwell Bridge’s heat exchanger business targets the North Sea and shore based operations of its main oil and gas clients. In order to further this, the company is also in the process of offering a similar service to those

based in the Middle East, where it is currently engaged in supplying units in Iraq.”

As illustrated, the company’s core services extend across three key areas of business, but the projects it has won cover all of these. For example, in April 2013 the company finished the construction of its first tank on a $22 million project to renovate and build 22 oil storage tanks in Liberia. This represents a significant project for the business, which commenced working on the site during 2012 and has been contracted to modernise the boat offloading, pipeline and jetties on site, carry out all civil engineering works, demolish redundant plant facilities, construct new bunding, lay foundation and construct new tanks, lay pipelines and install new pumps and electrical systems, and develop new instrumentation and fire fighting systems.

“We have been exploring opportunities in West Africa for some time and this contract with LPRC demonstrates our ability to undertake complex operations in new markets, building on our existing projects in Nigeria,” said Russell, speaking about the project on the company’s website. “We see significant opportunities in locations like Liberia, as there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done in the country following decades of civil war and we’re not afraid of tackling challenges in what can still be a difficult environment. But we haven’t gone into this job with our eyes closed. We’ve taken a pragmatic approach and have teamed up with people who know the market and can find the people and skills we need locally to make it happen. This project demonstrates what the modern Motherwell Bridge has to offer – the senior project management and technical expertise necessary to undertake even the most complex of tank storage projects – anywhere in the world.”

Closer to home, tank storage is also a growing market in the UK for Motherwell Bridge as in May 2013 the company was awarded a contract to design, procure and install the replacement floor and double deck floating roof for a storage tank at Essar Oil (UK)’s Stanlow refinery, which was formerly owned by Royal Dutch Shell.

Essar is conducting an ongoing investment programme at Stanlow and Motherwell Bridge will be handling the replacement of the floor and double deck floating roof on one of the facility’s 100,000 m3 storage tanks. Together with the recent international developments this project represents Motherwell Bridge’s continued success in its domestic market and is a strong

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endorsement of its capabilities, particularly in floating roof projects.

Of course, Motherwell Bridge’s reputation is in little need of further endorsement, with the company firmly recognised for the highest standards of quality, health and safety. Indeed, during its history the business has received a number of prestigious awards in these fields including the British Safety Council National Safety Award (achieved annually since 2006), RoSPA President’s Award (achieved in 2004 on receiving ten consecutive Gold Awards), RoSPA Order of Distinction (achieved in 2009 on receiving 15 consecutive Gold Awards), Membership of the British Safety Council, Nominated for Employer of the Year Scotland 2013, and quality and environmental management systems accredited to according ISO standards.

Naturally, achieving this level of quality relies heavily on the skill and competence of Motherwell Bridge’s employees – an area in which the company continuously invests. In

March 2013, for example, the business further strengthened its team with the addition of key employees. It expanded it storage tanks division by adding two design engineers, a junior welding engineer and a trainee CAD designer to the design and engineering team. Clayton Walker, Motherwell Bridge’s gasholder division recruited a trainee design engineer during the same period, and a third new project manager, Alan Taylor, was added to the heat exchanger team.

These additions will only strengthen an already industry-leading team, continuing to drive Motherwell Bridge to new heights. In terms of growth the business is continuing to look to international projects, as well as maintaining its position domestically. During 2013 the company is looking to carry out high profile networking by appearing at various industry exhibitions and conferences to secure new leads. With the strengths of its name preceding it, there is little doubt that Motherwell Bridge will find a wealth of new work to propel it forward in the future.

Motherwell Bridge Ltd mbgroup.com

Services Manufactures storage tanks, heat exchangers and gasholders

Integrated There have been major developments for BAM Energie since it was last in European Oil and Gas magazine in 2011; the company has progressed rapidly in the offshore wind programme and completed its product for UK round three, a cutting edge concrete gravity base foundation (GBF), as part of a joint venture with Van Oord. “The basic design concept of the GBF was completed end of 2012 and was first shown at the Concrete Offshore wind exhibition in December 2012, before we exhibited a further developed version at the Manchester Central Convention Complex’s Renewable UK conference in June. We shall also be present at the upcoming European Offshore Wind Conference in Frankfurt. Overall people

have been impressed with our design, we have received very positive feedback and are currently entering into tenders with several developers for round three,” says Ferry de Bruin, general manager of BAM Energie. “We have also made progress in other areas, such as the tidal market, compressed air energy storage (CAES) and the high voltage sector.”

The GBF began life because BAM Energie could see that demand for sustainable energy was only going to increase. As a result BAM Energie, BAM Nuttall and Van Oord Offshore Wind Projects joined forces to develop a product specifically suitable for larger offshore wind turbines in deeper waters. The concept for the GBF was developed from BAM Energie and Van Oord’s expertise in the design and construction of immersed tube tunnels and gravity base structures for the oil and gas industry. Working together, the two firms created a self-buoyant hybrid solution, which has undergone model testing and is adaptable for a range of water depths, wave heights and seabed conditions.

Consisting of a concrete caisson and steel shaft, the base is cast onshore before it is installed into position offshore using standard vessels, thus eliminating the need for heavy lift equipment.

In February 2013, following thorough

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Wind foundation As part of its activities in the renewable energy sector, BAM Infraconsult provides design, engineering and consultancy services for offshore wind projects. To this end, BAM Infraconsult has developed a Gravity Based Foundation (GBF) concept together with BAM Energie, BAM Nuttall and Van Oord, which they are ready to deliver to wind farms that are under development in the North Sea. The team comprises all disciplines, ensuring that all aspects of design, construction and marine operations are fully integrated. The GBF is fully self-floating, has been subject to extensive design calculations, physical and numerical modeling and DNV certification, and is ready for project implementation.

www.baminfraconsult.nl

Contact BAM Infraconsult bv - P.O. Box 268, 2800 AG Gouda, The Netherlands Jos van Rijen  +31 182 590 455  j.van.rijen@baminfraconsult.nl Nhut Quang Nguyen  +31 182 590 474  nq.nguyen@baminfraconsult.nl Delta Marine Consultants is a trade name of BAM Infraconsult bv

LNG Facilities Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is currently, possibly, the fastest growing major fuel source on earth. Delta Marine Consultants has grown to become a major player in the design of Marine Civil Infrastructure for the Oil and Gas industry and for LNG developments in particular. DMC has full in-house capabilities for providing integrated civil design services throughout the entire project design life cycle, from performing scouting studies up to and including detailed jetty design and site engineering. Capabilities include design of all Marine and Coastal Structures, ship-to-shore design, mooring analyses and port operability studies.

www.dmc.nl

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Fabricom for this market, who we worked with on a successful waste to energy plant last year, and have already been successful in securing the Randstad 380kV Noordring in the west of the Netherlands. We expect a lot of work coming up in the high voltage market, and being succesfull on other projects as well.”

Believing both project and process are paramount, BAM Energie has a strong reputation for offering a comprehensive service package to its customers, which is made possible through the company’s own expertise, sophisticated in-house technologies,

Consisting of a concrete caisson and steel shaft, the base is cast onshore before it is installed into position offshore using standard vessels, thus eliminating the need for heavy lift equipment BAM Infraconsult

is really taking off at the moment in the UK, especially in Scotland for round three, and if our product is successful here our future plans are to sell it in other countries in Europe and around the world,” says Sander Overbeeke, project manager for the offshore wind projects.

Having entered the market, BAM Energie has been successful in several prequalifications for round three of the offshore wind programme and aims to continue with a demonstration project to prove the capabilities of the GBF solution.

Formed by BAM Civiel, one of the 25 companies operating under the Royal BAM name, BAM Energie carries out multidisciplinary projects in the energy industry.

Serving as the single point of contact, BAM Energie delivers high-quality and sustainable services in the fields of design, construction, renovation, commissioning and maintenance of power stations and related plants. “We have advanced a lot in the high voltage market in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany, which is anticipated to be worth around one billion euros to one and a half billion euros when it comes into fruition over the next three years,” says Ferry. “We are teaming up with Cofely

strategic partnerships and support from sister companies. A recent contract win for the firm is for one of the delivery Lots by SSE electricity transmission network business, Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission PLC (SHE Transmission) as part of a joint venture with the Power Transmission Division of Siemens Transmission and Distribution Ltd. With an initial value of up to £200 million, the framework is part of a major system reinforcement by SHE Transmission to accommodate onshore wind, new offshore wind and emerging marine generation developments, as part of Scotland’s ambition for low carbon emissions.

The award for Lot Three includes five new substations, which Siemens and BAM are required to design, manufacture, construct and commission to incorporate site access, platform construction and foundations as well as both AIS and GIS substations. Building on an already successful relationship between Siemens and BAM, the project is expected to start in late 2013 and continue through until 2018. Throughout 2013 the company is looking out for further opportunities in the offshore wind, nuclear power, high voltage and compressed air energy storage (CAES).

BAM Infraconsult is a consultancy firm with offices in Gouda (head office), Amsterdam, Apeldoorn, Breda, The Hague, Utrecht, Jakarta and Singapore, along with support offices in Ravenstein and Zuidbroek.

BAM Infraconsult is specialised in civil marine, infrastructure and energy projects. Currently it provides BAM companies with engineering support for gravity based structures that support offshore wind turbines and transformer platforms.

Through its trade name Delta Marine Consultants, it provides worldwide consultancy services to EPC contractors for ports, marine and offshore facilities for major oil companies such as Shell, Chevron, BP and Esso.

Using ‘virtual’ construction, it is a leading player in the development of the Construction Information Model.

BAM Energie bamenergie.com

Services Designs and constructs solutions for the energy industry

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examination and verification of the conceptual design basis, BAM and Van Oord obtained the DNV Statement of Compliance for the GBF, confirming to both companies that they have found a robust and reliable solution.

“Our concrete base and steel shaft is a market leading concept at the moment because it is different to our competitors’ designs. The combination of the materials leads to a very compact design because of optimal use of materials and a weight distribution that creates a high degree of floating stability throughout the tow and installation phase. Offshore wind

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Offshore concept specialists We have extensive experience in offshore facility concept identification, screening and selection.

Our bespoke analysis provides efficient and transparent solutions attuned to our clients’ key development criteria.

We have successfully completed the concept selection for the Barryroe oil and gas field in the Celtic Sea and we are continuing to work with Providence Resources and their partners, Lansdowne Oil & Gas, to further define and evaluate the development. We’re delighted to be involved in the development of Ireland’s first major offshore oilfield.

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Providence Resources

At the

increased international interest in the Irish oil and gas market, which despite having limited resources compared to other northwest European countries, has a number of elements such as attractive fiscal terms, new technology and the installation of infrastructure, which have made it an attractive area to prospective operators. At the forefront of this growing market is Providence Resources, a business that is focused on the exploration and exploitation of the hydrocarbon potential around Ireland.

The growing interest in the sector, and the untested potential of the Irish market, has seen Providence Resources embark on an ambitious multi-basin, multi-year drilling programme to test and exploit that potential. European Oil and Gas Magazine recently spoke with Tony O’Reilly, chief executive at the business, to find out more about its operations.

“Since the early 1980’s, we have been focused on oil and gas exploration, and primarily in Ireland, which is why the business was originally set up,” he explained. “The fundamental change really happened in 2004 when we commissioned a strategic review of the company, looking at our operations in Ireland and establishing that this is the region that we really wanted to continue to focus on. At that time, we felt that Ireland was still very much an unproven region, with too few wells drilled and with only two successful commercial developments, despite its offshore acreage being substantially larger than the whole North Sea. “Ireland had essentially been under-drilled for some time, as far back as the 1970s and 1980s, with many wells encountering hydrocarbons but not being commercialised,” he said.

“There were a number of key reasons for this, predominantly based around lack of infrastructure, lack of frontier or deepwater technology that was needed and an economic environment that was considered less attractive than other regions. More recently however, those key variables have all been

overcome; so we have the pipeline infrastructure in place across Ireland and connecting us to Europe, the advent of better drilling technology, as well as the use of 3D seismic technology that has opened up new opportunities, changes in the tax regime and a more robust commodity pricing environment. All of these elements are extremely positive for the Irish market and are largely behind our advancing our drilling programme.”

Building on the renewed interest, Providence has focused on a large-scale exploration and appraisal programme, working on opening up as many basins as it can. “We describe ourselves as a front end E&P company, so we are not a development company as such, but rather we feel that we are very good at going out there and finding the basins, doing the initial exploration and appraisal and bringing in the right partners to achieve success. We currently have activities in eight basins offshore Ireland, making us the most diversified explorer in the region, and we have already brought in a number of first rate partners including ExxonMobil, ENI, Repsol and Petronas among others.”

In carrying out this work, Providence’s general business model has revolved around opening up as many of these basins as it can, often carrying out one pathfinder project or well in the basin with the hope of finding significant resources.

“Essentially, it has been all about opening up Ireland as a realistic oil and gas region,” Tony commented. “We always said that we would need one significant discovery and it would be a game changer for us and the Irish oil and gas industry, and that is precisely what happened in one of our basins that we drilled last year in the Celtic Sea, called Barryroe.”

Barryroe has proven to be a large, positive development for Providence Resources. Situated in circa 100 metres of water off the south coast of Ireland, the field was the subject of successful appraisal drilling in 2012. Previous operators had drilled five wells on the field and in 2011 Providence, having acquired a new 3D seismic survey on the field, successfully drilled a sixth well announcing results that far exceeded pre-drill expectations. After extensive post well analysis and field development planning,

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Providence Resources

analysis, Providence has launched a farm out campaign to bring in a partner to take the field to first oil - and it has received significant amounts of international interest owing to the size of Barryroe, its location and its relative attractiveness from a fiscal and operating perspective.

However, Barryroe is just one of the many developments that Providence Resources is currently undertaking, as Tony was keen to highlight: “We are involved in a $500 million programme of six basins with our partners – so in addition to Barryroe, we are presently drilling a massive exploration well off the west coast called Dunquin (drilling operations commenced in April 2013), and then through next year we have another four basins that we will be drilling off the west of Ireland and in St. Georges Channel.

“It is still early days, but it is a very exciting time for us and I am pleased that Providence is really taking a leading role in the Irish offshore.

I think the great thing is that we are drilling – it’s all very well talking about the potential of the market, but it is all about getting the wells

drilled and taking the initiative, and that is what we are doing. The more activity you have, the greater the chance of success, and I think that whilst we may have been something of a ‘lone voice’ for the Irish sector in the past, now that you have the arrival of players like ExxonMobil, Cairn, Kosms, Woodside, Repsol, Petronas, etc – clearly, the international industry is watching developments, particularly our developments, very closely.

“I think that there is a very real sense that Ireland’s time is coming, and there is a ‘watch this space’ feeling around Barryroe and Dunquin.

The latter is an uber-large exploration prospect that we have brought ExxonMobil, Repsol and ENI in to and I think the coming weeks and months will be hugely interesting and could be massive for Irish oil and gas. With all that we have going on, we view the future with great confidence. We are validating the prospectivity of the Irish offshore and as an Irish company, I’m proud that Providence is leading the way in that respect,” he concludes.

Providence Resources providenceresources.com

Services Exploration and appraisal

PROFILE

Karmsund

region

played a vital role for large parts of the industry in southwestern Norway. It offers customers access to a wide range of facilities, and so whether they want to establish a business, rent

many waterfront segments. It is an efficient and modern business that holds service and quality as keys to its success, and can demonstrate solid economic foundations. The port also has a distinctly green profile to its operations, and focuses on the environment and climate change as an integral part of daily routines.

Operations at Karmsund are split into three main areas – a subsea base; cruise line and containers/traffic.

Subsea & offshore base

space, place a boat in storage or use one of Karmsund’s harbour sections, the organisation will work hard to meet their needs.

Furthermore, the diverse maritime industry around Karmsund is a great advantage for the port and supports its complete service offering.

The fishing industry and shipyards with large dry docks gives the region a unique maritime diversity.

The Karmsund port area is the third largest in Norway, measured in cargo cover over the

One division of Karmsund Port is the Killingøy Subsea & Offshore Base, which meets the regulations on protection of ports and port facilities against terrorist acts and so forth, as well as being approved by the NCA. Located at Killingøy, Statoil operates a major facility for its PRS (Pipeline Repair System), and as recently as June 2013, it took the keys to a new 1070 square metre hall on the base, which is on long-term lease from Karmsund, and features modern technology, including a 25-ton crane.

In addition to Statoil’s PRS facility, Killingøy is home to many of the region's prime subsea players, including: Technip Norway, Deep Ocean, Olufsen Ship Repair, Reach Subsea and Mera. In addition, Karmsund Port Authority's administration is also located at Killingøy.

Representing a significant development for Karmsund, Technip signed an agreement for long-term rental of an industrial hall in Killingøy

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Cruise port It was three years ago in 2010 when Karmsund Port Authority, together with destination management, took the strategic decision to launch a serious and sustained effort to attract cruise tourism.

Much effort and resources have been invested into the cruise facilities with Karmsund Port Authority investing about eight million itself to create the best possible conditions for ship, crew and passengers. Special attention was paid to the jetty and mooring arrangement and bollards are now 150 tons. With a quay of 297 metres, the region can accommodate ships of all sizes. It also established a park - Harbour Park - which will ensure that both cruise passengers and the region’s own citizens have a very enjoyable experience after a visit to the quay.

As a result of all this hard work, the first cruise ship arrived in May 2013 – Fred Olsen’s ‘Balmoral’. With room for 1350 passengers and a crew of 510 Balmoral is the largest in the Olsen

cruise fleet, and is due to make more calls into Haugesund during the summer of 2013.

Traffic port Moving onto the traffic port, this location benefits from new road connections from Rogaland to E39, and means it is very strategically located in relation to the business community in the region, as well as Stavanger and Bergen.

In the harbour there are large areas of development available, plus the main quay was extended in summer 2012 to 270 metres, and as well as a modern RORO ramp, Karmsund provides a state-of-the-art quay, all designed to benefit end users.

Going forward, Karmsund will maintain its focus on consolidating its position, as well as making further improvements in order to meet the demands of the future, by facilitating the development of modern technology infrastructure in the port district. It also has ambitions to be a part of the development of the area in terms of industry and tourism; as well as to be the natural choice for ships, with easy access and good service. It looks clear that with this firm strategy in place, Karmsund will remain a port of great importance to both its local area and to the whole of Norway.

With a quay of 297 metres, the region can accommodate ships of all sizes.

It also established a park - Harbour Park - which will ensure that both cruise passengers and the region’s own citizens have a very enjoyable experience after a visit to the quay

Karmsund karmsund-havn.no

Services Port services

European oil & gas

just days before Statoil took on its new facility.

According to the agreement, the hall will be completed in the first semester of 2014, and in addition, Technip in Norway has need for a storage area outside the base.

“Initially, Technip will use the hall for storage and maintenance of modular hyperbaric rescue equipment, a module handling system for subsea equipment, adding accessories for cables and smaller vessels for air diving when not in use,” said managing director of Technip in Norway, Odd Strømsnes.

Karmsund port director Sigurd Eikje was very pleased to sign the long-term lease agreement with Technip, as the contract helps to emphasise the strength and importance of the subsea environment at Killingøy. The Karmsund Port Authority has been working for several years to establish the agreement and will start work immediately on the design of an industrial hall with office facilities for rent to Technip.

“There is no other agreement Karmsund Port Authority has worked on for as long as this,” said Sigurd Eikje at the signing. “Therefore it feels especially good when you finally reach the goal.” The agreement was signed at the same time as City Council in Haugesund adopted new zoning for Killingøy/Rekavik. “This creation shows that regulatory change was appropriate and important for the subsea environment in the region,” added Sigurd.

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It has been a productive and successful 12 months for family company Wessington Cryogenics since it was last in European Oil and Gas Magazine in July 2012. The 29-year-old manufacturer of cryogenic vessels has enhanced its service offering by adding a range of cuttingedge products to its expansive portfolio, as Darren Nutter, business development manager of Wessington Cryogenics highlights: “We are developing two new product lines; acid tanks and a new range of chemical tanks for the offshore industry. These products complement our current portfolio, owing to these similarities we are able to cultivate and exploit our core competencies and capabilities. Working alongside our customers, combined with our strong values in safety, quality and development, we are bringing new and innovative products to the market.”

Both the acid tanks and chemical tanks are out in the field and have been well received on the market. The Acid Pack 2000, a fully lined IMDG T14 acid transport and storage tank, is designed to DNV 2.7-1 standards and is fully certified for offshore use.

Always looking for opportunities to enhance its portfolio in new market areas, Wessington Cryogenics, which has an annual revenue of approximately £9 million and a customer base that includes major companies such as NASA and Halliburton, has seen steady demand during the economic crisis, which has resulted in the company expanding into a new 15,000 square foot factory. “The new factory, based in Castletown, is separate to our 70,000 square

foot manufacturing facility in Sunderland and is a natural extension due to us taking on a wide variety of projects in the last 12-18 months.

Its opening followed two contract wins, one of which was for a 60,000-litre large bulk storage tank and the other was for a number of 40-foot ISO containers for LNG. The 40-foot tank is a product we have wanted to add to our portfolio for a while and it is being well received by our customers,” says managing director Paul Rowe.

Believing LNG and helium tanks will be

key areas of growth for the firm, Wessington Cryogenics’ new addition has been designed as a standard 40-foot ISO frame with Blair corner castings and a lockable valve protecting cabinet, which contains valves, gauges, vacuum check gauge connection and a separate document holder. The ISO VAC 40 LNG offers maximum versatility, allowing it to be configured to accept cryogenic transfer pumps as well as various pipe work and valve options for the end user and operator. Furthermore, the tank can be produced with working pressures that range from 100psi to ten Bar, can be used for the safe storage and

Aware that constant product evolution also requires consistent training and development of staff, Wessington Cryogenics has a strong focus on enhancing the skills of all personnel through in-house training, as Paul explains: “Cryogenics is a diverse, but insular and small community, which is why we take on people from related industries and train them into fully qualified and highly skilled staff.” On top of this, the company offers cryogenic training courses to third parties, in association with Gas Safe Consultants, in response to market requirements for specialised safety training in the safe use, handling, storage and transport of industrial, cryogenic, laboratory, medical and special gases.

Following a year of record turnover in 2012, Wessington Cryogenics is keen to see this trend continue into the future, as Paul concludes: “We want to expand and explore new markets, be as dynamic as possible and continue to develop our products. With our superb reputation and ability to go where the markets tell us to go, I don’t see why we can’t keep on growing.”

We are big enough to have a strong portfolio and small enough to be adaptable and say yes to new projects, so our flexibility is respected in the industry

Wessington Cryogenics wessingtoncryogenics.co.uk

Products Cryogenic vessels

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transport of LNG and has approvals for road, rail and sea transportation.

Keen to diversify its product offering through continued research, design and development of new products, Wessington Cryogenics continues to look out for new market areas, which Paul believes is the reason the company wins major contracts: “We are big enough to have a strong portfolio and small enough to be adaptable and say yes to new projects, so our flexibility is respected in the industry. Even while we are working on big standard projects we aim to continue innovating and enhancing our product range, whether that is an extra valve or new feature on a custom made item that we then realise is useful for other clients. That feature will then be put into the whole range. We have certain product ranges where every single one will be completely bespoke, this is particularly true for the laboratory side of our company, where we get the most basic concept outline and we then slowly design a product from the ground up.”

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from exploration to end user Schofield Publishing Ltd 10 Cringleford Business Centre Intwood Road Cringleford Norwich NR4 6AU T: +44 (0) 1603 274130 F: +44 (0) 1603 274131 Editor Matt High mhigh@schofieldpublishing.co.uk Sales Manager Rob Wagner rwagner@schofieldpublishing.co.uk

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