European Oil and Gas Issue 119 April 2015

119 APRIL ď ˇ 2015

oil&gas european

europeanoilandgas.co.uk f r o m e x p l o r a t i o n t o e n d u s e r

role

A crucial

Carbon capture and storage could be a critical de-carbonisation technology, as well as essential for addressing climate change

Team control Workforce management systems are helping to manage modern rigs A spy under the sea Subsea technology has become increasingly important to upstream E&P

this ISSUE: Hydrocarbon accounting

Sustainability for the energy and utilities industry Building a sustainable future together The world’s environment and climate are front and centre in today’s political, legislative and social agenda and now more than ever the world’s Energy and Utilities companies must find more sustainable ways to harvest, produce and transport energy to satisfy the world’s thirst.

Energy and Utilities manufacturers and their suppliers must improve the environmental friendliness of their offerings without compromising safety and reliability. Finding the right balance between the three aspects of sustainability – environmental, social and economic considerations – is what defines a sustainable product.

Success at creating sustainable offerings using sustainable manufacturing processes requires understanding and effective lifecycle management. This enables today’s companies to make more effective decisions based on the sustainability of product and process knowledge that is available throughout an entire lifecycle.

Plan for sustainability Planning is the key step. Sustainability becomes a major business factor when planners evaluate marketplace alternatives and factor lifecycle impacts during the early stages of the planning analysis. These impacts include but are not limited to the product’s raw materials, supply chain considerations, manufacturing operations, usage, service and decommissioning. By considering the product’s entire lifecycle during the planning stage, companies can ensure more sustainable choices for their portfolio at the start of the development process.

Design for sustainability Companies can design sustainable products and processes to support an overall corporate effort. To do this organisations must consider the regulatory requirements and for the effect it has on the production of your product.

Full visibility into operations is key and something as simple as the ability to rolling up the energy or water used across a fleet of plants allows quick assessment of status to energy or other sustainability targets. Fast access to documentation and information helps engineers narrow down alternatives in order to create a sustainable product or process.

Sustainable manufacturing Today’s manufacturing engineers must ensure the environmental friendliness of their company’s plants and processes, protect the health and safety of its workers, and optimise plant operations and assets to reduce energy, water consumption, waste and emissions. Manufacturers are also challenged to ensure that the supply chain can embrace sustainable practices.

Sustainable service and end-of-life Energy and Utilities facilities and infrastructure must be designed to aid in the quick and easy service. To do this, engineers must consider service and end-of-life implications during product planning and development to facilitate strategies for commissioning/decommissioning, re-use and recycling.

Governance, compliance and reporting For Energy and Utilities companies increased regulation are a way of life which requires an increased need for processes that facilitate internal governance, auditing and reporting. Regulatory standards cover every aspect of the production and operation processes. These product and operational regulations require companies to demonstrate compliance and issue reports to government and regulatory agencies.

How can Siemens PLM Software help?

Siemens PLM Software provides a complete platform for sustainability that enables Energy and Utilities companies to plan and design for sustainability, operate sustainable plants, facilitate sustainable service and to ensure that governance, compliance and reporting is available across the lifecycle.

As a result, Energy and Utility companies can: • Ensure compliance and reporting transparency with governmental regulations, and with customer and company requirements, by facilitating complete traceability from requirements to delivery • Achieve market success and build a positive company image and goodwill by developing environmentally responsible offerings • Reduce costs through waste reduction, minimise use of resources and protect employee health and safety in a sustainable production environment • Win new business profitably with known risk and known costs, learning from actual performance into your next bid.

To learn more about Siemens PLM Software’s solutions for Energy visit http://www.siemens.com/plm/ukbreakthrough

Editors Editors Chairman Andrew Schofield Director Mike Tulloch Editor Libbie Hammond libbie@schofieldpublishing.co.uk Staff Writers Jo Cooper Andrew Dann Steve Nash Ben Clark Art Editor Gérard Roadley-Battin Production Manager Fleur Daniels Business Development Director David Garner Corporate Advertising Sales David King dking@schofieldpublishing.co.uk Sales Joe Woolsgrove Head of Research Philip Monument Business Development Manager Mark Cawston Research Managers Ben Richell Natalie Griffiths Editorial Researchers Jeff Johnson Wendy Russell ­Office Manager/Advertisement Administrator Tracy Chynoweth Digital Subscriptions Iain Kidd digital @schofieldpublishing.co.uk

We are expanding our subscriber base and the range of topics we will cover, which will help us to address issues across the wider total spectrum of energy.

As oil prices

remain low and the sector faces a challenging outlook, is there any good news on the horizon?

The UK Budget did offer a little hope to the North Sea sector, introducing a cut in petroleum revenue tax to 35 per cent and supplementary tax down to 20 per cent, but that could be just the beginning of what’s required, as Dan Lewis, Senior Infrastructure Policy Adviser at the IoD noted: “… given the great uncertainty in the global energy market, and with the possibility of further oil price falls, a future government may have to look at cutting these taxes again,” he said.

And while this was a little bit of good news for the UK, on a wider scale it looks clear that the oil & gas sector will have these low prices to deal with for a while, and as a result it will have to look at efficiency, productivity and technology in order to survive.

These sorts of challenges and resolutions are what we want to cover in European Oil & Gas, and to enable the magazine to stay at the top of its game, some changes are approaching. We are expanding our subscriber base and the range of topics we will cover, which will help us to address issues across the wider total spectrum of energy. Our coverage is also growing to a global basis, so that we can include more stories from around the world.

So the next issue is going to be called ‘Energy, Oil & Gas’ – if you’d like to share your stories or opinions, please get in touch.

editor LIBBIE HAMMOND

© 2015 Schofield Publishing Limited all rights reserved 10 Cringleford Business Centre Intwood Road Cringleford Norwich NR4 6AU T: +44 (0) 1603 274130 F: +44 (0) 1603 274131

please note: The opinions expressed by contributors and advertisers within this publication do not necessarily coincide with those of the editor and publisher. Every reasonable effort is made to ensure that the information published is accurate, but no legal responsibility for loss occasioned by the use of such information can be accepted by the publisher. All rights reserved. The contents of the magazine are strictly copyright, the property of Schofield Publishing, and may not be copied, stored in a retrieval system, or reproduced without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Regulars

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Carbon capture and storage

It is clear that CCS can and must play a crucial role in helping to decarbonise our global energy supply

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IT

The importance of data capture and security and how fair play and precision are crucial to one company’s allocation systems

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News

Some of the recent developments within the oil and gas industry

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Subsea

As the subsea portfolios of oil and gas companies become much larger and more diverse and assets age, the industry has a greater need for smarter solutions

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HSE

As the oil & gas sector continues to struggle with rising production and the falling price of oil, its time to avoid unnecessary wastage and sophisticated software can help with managing workforces and increasing efficiency

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Profiles

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21 Norwegian Electric Systems 25 Alicat Workboats 28 Lankhorst Ropes 30 DUC Diving 34 Arca Regler 37 VandeGrijp 42 40 SPP Pumps 42 Ocean Oilfield

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Contents

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44 STS Gruppen 46 Brown McFarlane 48 48 Thermtech 51 Cummins Middle East 53 Quartzelec 56 Scandinanvian Tank Storage

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59 Technip India 61 Large Diameter Drilling 64 Nordic Maritime 66 Radley Engineering

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role

A crucial

Eirik Harding Hansen, acting managing director at Technology Centre Mongstad, takes a look at carbon capture and storage

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he world’s thirst for energy is growing. In February 2015 Oil giant BP forecast energy demand growth of as much as 37 per cent over the next 20 years, which it predicts could take CO2 emissions to 18 billion tonnes above the IEA’s 450 Scenario by 2035.

While there is no ‘silver bullet’ technology to manage this growth, it is clear that carbon capture and storage (CCS) can

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and must play a crucial role in helping to decarbonise our global energy supply. Indeed, the IEA states that by 2050 CCS could reduce global carbon dioxide emissions by 19 per cent, and that fighting climate change could cost 70 per cent more without CCS. 2015 is set to be a milestone year for climate change policy, and one that will solidify the role of CCS in the new energy economy. The 21st United Nations Climate Change

Carbon capture and storage

Conference in Paris will see a new international climate change agreement adopted, with a view to implementation from 2020, and the U.N. has already highlighted CCS as a critical technology that will help form the basis of this COP 21 covenant.

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, recently stated: ‘it is only with marketable CCS that we will be able to use the

fossil fuels that we need’, adding that CCS would be her top choice for investment alongside energy storage technology.

There is growing international momentum behind CCS and 2014 was arguably the most momentous year for the technology in some time. In November, Canada’s Boundary Dam project (the world's first full-scale CCS power station) became operational, while in the USA, Kemper County, which is set to become the largest CCS power plant in the world when it opens this year, passed the halfway mark in its construction.

The IPCC’s landmark 5th Assessment Report was also launched in November, stating unequivocally that CCS and Bio-CCS must be part of the energy mix if we are to limit global warming to 2°C. Furthermore, we saw calls for an EU-wide Emissions Performance Standard (EPS) intensify after the USA introduced emission limits on coal and gas power plants.

Energy generators have been capturing and transporting CO2 gases for decades to facilitate activities such as enhanced oil recovery and the production of carbonated drinks. But the fact remains that CCS technologies do not currently exist at commercial scale and carbon capture is costly; the GCCSI estimates that each MWh supported by CCS costs energy generators an additional $50 - $100, as well as substantial capital costs for development.

The major challenge facing the CCS industry is to adapt the technology so that power plants, refineries, cement plants and other industrial facilities can use it, at the right price. To achieve this, a chain of development from R&D, to demonstration, and then to full-scale commercialisation is necessary. Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM) provides an important arena for testing, verification and demonstration of technology to take place. Indeed, technology testing is the vital route for verifying and demonstrating capture technology, which in turn can reduce costs, plus technical, environmental and financial risks, thereby creating the preconditions for CCS success. By bringing costs down and making the market viable, technologists provide a basis for global energy policy and investment.

To meet the need for testing, large-scale test centres have been developed to allow the safe simulation of carbon capture. Demonstration projects like TCM are vital in moving us towards the cost tipping point, where the price per kilowatt hour of CCS is investible, based on the payback of reducing the financial and social costs of carbon emissions.

TCM, a joint venture between the Norwegian state, Statoil, Shell and Sasol, is the most advanced of the world’s test centres, offering the ability to capture 100,000 tonnes of CO2 a year, from cracker flue gas, which resembles flue gas from coal-fired power plants, and gas-fired sources. Crucially, TCM is the only large-scale test centre providing gas-fired carbon emissions for testing and the possibility to test on two

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Carbon capture and storage could be a critical de-carbonisation technology for power and industrial applications, and essential for addressing climate change. Indeed, the International Energy Agency has estimated that as much as one fifth of total required carbon emissions reductions will come from CCS by 2050

different flue gases, and as a result has played a major role in progressing the CCS market over the past year.

Significantly, TCM in October 2014 completed the world’s first open-source, large-scale CO2 capture tests of amine solvent MonoEthanolAmine (MEA) on flue gas from a gasfired power plant, in collaboration with Aker Solutions as a part of its test period at the centre. Baseline solvent MEA is commonly used in post-combustion carbon capture studies to compare the performance of proprietarily-developed amines and other CO2 removal processes, and the results prove that industrial-scale CO2 capture is technically and

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environmentally feasible to an extent never seen before, setting a new benchmark for the CCS industry.

The MEA test campaign was designed to investigate the impacts of varying MEA concentrations, verify design capacity and flexibility of the plant and specific functionalities, and help understand scale-up, performance and emissions aspects. Around 150 different plant run scenarios were investigated and the campaign also tested different online and offline techniques for emissions monitoring analysis.

The campaign at TCM has given the CCS industry

Carbon capture and storage

TCM shared some of the most important results openly with the global CCS community at the GHGT-12 conference in Austin, TX to increase knowledge and understanding of CO2 capture technology and to accelerate the full-scale deployment of CCS. The following month, Shell Cansolv’s test campaign of its technology planned for Shell’s Peterhead scheme in Scotland, was launched. The testing, which is taking place at TCM’s amine test facility, is intended to confirm Shell Cansolv’s processes and emission controls using exhaust gas from the Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Plant at Mongstad.

The test phase will reinforce the CANSOLV CO2 Capture technology, and validate its readiness for deployment at industrial-scale projects.

Run by Shell UK, the Peterhead project in Aberdeenshire is developing the world’s first full-scale gas CCS demonstration project. As a result of this project, it is estimated that up to ten million tonnes of CO2 emissions could be captured and then stored in the depleted Goldeneye reservoir, 2km under the North Sea bed. The implications of a gas-fired full-scale CCS project are huge, since adding the technology to a power plant can reduce its CO2 emissions by more than 90 per cent.

The run up to COP 21 is an exciting time for TCM and the CCS industry more broadly. TCM continues its dialogue with international vendors for reuse of the amine facility and a potential plug-and-play setup at the available site, and is also in dialogue with the US Department of Energy regarding CCS collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Carbon capture and storage could be a critical de-carbonisation technology for power and industrial applications, and essential for addressing climate change.

Indeed, the International Energy Agency has estimated that as much as one fifth of total required carbon emissions reductions will come from CCS by 2050. Technology Centre Mongstad, as the world’s largest facility for testing and improving CO2 capture, is preparing the ground for these critical CCS initiatives and is playing a crucial role in paving the way for policy makers to build a viable CCS industry to address climate change.

significant new insight into the operations of large amine plants treating gas-turbine flue gases, and has proven that energy and electricity can be produced from natural gas with an extremely low CO2 footprint and within emission limits set by the Norwegian environmental authorities. The results show energy demands for CO2 removal can be reduced from previously anticipated 4.1 GJ/kg CO2 removed to about 3.4 GJ/ton CO2 removed, while capturing 90 per cent of the CO2 in the flue gas. This is a reduction in energy demand of about 20 per cent, which will have a significant impact on reducing costs for full-scale CCS.

TECHNOLOGY CENTRE MONGSTAD Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM) is the world’s largest and most advanced facility for testing and improving CO2 capture.

TCM is a joint venture set up by the Norwegian state, Statoil, Shell and Sasol. It aims to increase knowledge on carbon capture technologies, in order to reduce technical and financial risk, and accelerate the development of qualified technologies capable of wide scale international deployment.

For further information please visit: tcmda.com.

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Building

Phil Stockton, director, Accord Energy Solutions, on the importance of data capture and security

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he security of fairness

In an employee-owned organisation where everyone benefits from having a stake in the business, fairness matters. Accord Energy Solutions was the first employeeowned company in Scotland to be launched from start up.

How we are is reflected in what we do: the business focuses on hydrocarbon accounting in the oil and gas industry, a discipline also centred on fairness.

The North Sea is an industrial region with multiple stakeholders with varying levels of interest in its offshore resources. Effective management and monitoring to ensure the hydrocarbons produced are fairly shared among the partners is critically important. Eighty per cent of what we do is in the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS), directly because of the complexity and scale of shared assets.

As an independent company working with major operators in the North Sea it is crucial that there is fair play and precision in our allocation systems. Using an independent business makes sense for operating partners, as there is no vested interest and accuracy is the priority.

Solid systems Below Phil Stockton is one The process of data capture and its compilation has of three founding evolved with the computer software available. Security of directors at Accord the type of data collected in hydrocarbon accounting is Energy Solutions

highly important. Information about historical production, particularly accurate or reliable information about oil and gas companies’ portfolios of wells, is hugely valuable. It is the basis for reporting on reserves, for tuning and examining models of reservoirs and for interactions between operators’ partners and various governments.

A range of computer systems for allocation are on the

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market. Some are very large scale and others are designed for niche uses. In providing advice, it is important to help customers understand their own needs when it comes to security and which products they can select to ensure the right built-in features will be at their disposal. It is typically vital to control access to the data, to make sure it is quickly accessible for users and that it can be backed up.

For complete transparency in projects and commercial agreements there are three aspects to consider: data records must be available for a long time, data must not be changed without good reason, and data should only be seen by those permitted.

International diversity Countries with only a national oil company have no requirement to divide the energy pie, their natural resources are entirely their own. But the North Sea is different with multiple stakeholders per asset, whether platform or pipeline.

There is scrutiny over how big the slices of pie are, who gets which slice, who is cutting the pie and how sharp the knife is. For Accord, this market is a vital one with a steady source of activity through a range of operators.

With North Sea oil and gas flowing along a complex labyrinth of pipelines, accurately recording movement demands great precision. The fall in the oil price in recent months is focusing minds more keenly on costs. Everyone wants value for money.

There are also increasing hydrocarbon accounting opportunities overseas. Accord has already worked in the Caspian region, regularly visiting Azerbaijan. As infrastructure develops in emerging energy economies, there will be an added demand to collect data and divide up the fiscal value of natural resources.

IT

Divide and conquer Since Accord was launched in 2010 it has been our role to ensure producers have a clear understanding of the relationship between risk and reward. Comparing the energy industry with a Monte Carlo casino table may seem farfetched, but when it comes to probability and uncertainty the comparison is valid.

Accord is the croupier at the oil and gas industry table, supervising fair play and accurate payouts. Just like the casino, the energy business may occasionally demand nerves of steel with high stakes and all to play for. But rather than paying out in cash and chips, Accord oversees the allocation of oil and gas by using sophisticated systems to determine the quality and quantity of hydrocarbon flow.

We use Monte Carlo simulations to calculate uncertainties in the data. Ideally hydrocarbons coming onto a platform should equate to what goes off. In reality with multiple meter readings there are discrepancies, and essentially, hydrocarbon allocation is about dividing up these discrepancies. The mathematics of probability determines acceptable discrepancies, identifies uncertainty in the allocated quantities and factors in these uncertainties to reach optimal solutions. The partners will then agree and sign off these results.

Software synchronised with hardware Forecasters who predicted the life span of the North Sea’s oil and gas industry at the outset have been astonished.

It was never expected to last this long. But successive discoveries have led to revised predictions that the industry will survive to 2050 and even beyond. This longevity is its strength and weakness.

People and organisations have skills and experience, which have now been exported globally. But ageing infrastructure has been augmented with more modern additions, creating 14,000 km of pipeline and 300 platforms. It is a maze, but one that is maintained and managed daily by highly skilled teams and increasingly sophisticated systems.

The story of software infrastructure in place in the North Sea is in parallel with the physical platforms and pipelines out there. In the same way that there are ageing platforms; there are also computer systems in use that are beginning to show their age. These have problems as they are based on outdated technology and over the years the knowledge of how these systems was originally designed to work naturally declines. Management teams become aware that there are issues and that updating their measurement processes is of critical business importance.

Long-term awareness Monitoring of systems and recognition that a particular set-up is no longer of optimum benefit for the business is the first step in a project, and the best time for Accord to

become involved. A computer system that is not effective for hydrocarbon accounting can be replaced with one that brings tangible value. We work with customers to frame a problem and think about it in a way that is consistent with industry standards.

Design of a suitable system is key. The company is informed on the way software should be tested and what type of training or change management activities should go hand in hand. Accord has a combination of personnel that we can offer, in some cases people with 30 years’ experience who have worked in IT but importantly in the hydrocarbon allocation business domain. They understand issues our customers face and about best practices that work in other operating companies around the world.

Universal solutions Measuring oil, gas and water is vital to the successful operation of every oil and gas company. With independent allocation, certainty and trust are assured which enables sustainable, collaborative working partnerships. It is our role to help clients realise the true monetary value of their produced hydrocarbons and avoid leakage. This removes doubt and reduces the likelihood of potential disputes that could result in damaged reputation.

Nowadays North Sea producers increasingly use techniques such as uncertainty based allocation to maximise the use of all production data and optimise hydrocarbon allocation. Oil and gas inevitably mingles during processing which makes accurate calculations even more vital. Accord is vendor neutral and has a length of experience to ensure the right software packages are in place for these.

Staff help customers reach agreements with their collaborators. They have developed engineering processes to improve the upstream market and have addressed previously unidentified issues. These systems have stopped the unfair allocation of millions of dollars’ worth of oil and gas, which means one aspect of this industry is less of a gamble.

Accord Energy Solutions Phil Stockton is one of three founding directors at Accord Energy Solutions, an employee- owned independent hydrocarbon accounting company. One of Phil’s roles is to oversee the use of process simulation models in hydrocarbon allocation systems in long pipelines to create a system that is equally fair for clients working collaboratively. Phil is a Cambridge University graduate with more than 25 years’ experience as a process engineer.

For further information please visit: accord-esl.com

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News

Scotland is world-leading A Scottish Enterprise survey of senior global industry figures shows that 74 per cent believed Scotland was one of the world’s leading training grounds for the industry, with 71 per cent agreeing that Scottish employees are some of the most dependable in the sector. The research looked at the views of more than 260 senior industry leaders from businesses employing approximately 2.2 million people across the globe.

Welcoming the findings, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “This poll comes at a time of change for the global energy sector. Turbulence in the oil markets is leading to some uncertainty about future workflows, but these results reinforce the value that Scottish businesses deliver to partners, particularly in deepwater and offshore exploration areas.

“More than two thirds go further, endorsing Scotland as a provider of training and development opportunities.

And a similar number also commend Scottish expertise as either important on a day-to-day basis, or essential in achieving a company’s overarching objectives.

“Our objective is to make clear that Scotland’s oil and gas wealth is not just in the resources that we extract, but the expertise that we have built up. We are working with the industry to continue to strengthen Scotland’s position as a global leader

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European oil & gas

Specially supplied skips Suretank has completed delivery of a range of custom-made mud cutting skips to Augean North Sea Services (ANSS) in Aberdeen. The mud cutting skips were tailor designed to meet the strict operational requirements set out by ANSS, and this recent batch of 250 units takes Augean’s fleet size up to 750 units in total.

Mark Pett-Ridge, sales manager for Suretank, commenting on the project said: “Augean are a fast growing operation in Aberdeen. We've been delighted to be able to work closely with all their staff to produce an engineered solution that meets the requirements of the waste treatment services they offer to the rigs and platforms in the North Sea. “Taking into consideration the requirements for both onshore and offshore operations we match these to meet DNV 2.7-1 certification. This recent delivery demonstrates our commitment to engineering great products that meet operational, logistic and health and safety requirements,” Mark continued.

Derek Richardson, technical sales manager for Augean North Sea Services, said: “We selected Suretank as they have a good reputation within the industry. They supply a quality service at good value. The process to design what we wanted was helped greatly by the team at Suretank and they added value with their input and guidance.”

Staff finders Specialist engineering recruitment firm, Cordant Technical & Engineering, has opened an office in Aberdeen to meet growing demand among oil and gas companies in particular for both temporary and permanent staff. The firm is part of Cordant Recruitment, the second largest privately owned recruitment company in the UK. Located in Union Street, the new Aberdeen office is being headed up by Claire Naha who recently joined Cordant Technical & Engineering. She has over 14 years’ international experience in Engineering recruitment, specifically within the Oil & Gas, Well Engineering, Drilling and Subsea sectors. The office has opened with four consultants with plans to grow this to ten by the end of this year.

Cordant Technical & Engineering’s long-term goal is for the Aberdeen office to be at the heart of all its UK Oil & Gas recruitment business, with other stand-alone divisions specialising in areas such as Subsea, ROV, Marine and Drilling. It will be placing both permanent and temporary staff. The consultancy has already started generating interest amongst local companies, having made successful placements for XL Group and ATR Group.

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1 Wandfluh Wandfluh standard programme proportional screW-in cartridges With slip-on coil Wandfluh offers the proportional screw-in valves with slip-on coil. The exchangeable coil significantly simplifies the logistics, because the solenoid coil can also be retrofitted. The various alternatives make the proportional screw-in cartridges a very flexible system. Different plug - voltage alternatives are available ex stock and are complemented with respect to individual adaptations - with the customary Wandfluh flexibility. In addition, the performance of the valves has been increased by the improved solenoid coil. Therefore ambient temperatures of up to 70°C can also be accepted without any performance loss.

With the improvement of the corrosion protection of the solenoid coil, depending on the version, the valves achieve a salt-spray resistance of over 500h.

Valves with the standard cavities M22, M33 and M42 in accordance with ISO 7789 are available. Pressure relief valves are available as direct operated and pilot-operated versions up to volume flows of 400 l/min and pressures of up to 350 bar. Apart from the optimised proportional throttle for volume flows of up to 63 l/min, the All-In-One valve QSPPM33 (tight seating volume flow controller) with mechanically preset Imin is in the Wandfluh product range. By the preset Imin, the series spread of the valves is reduced to a minimum, in order to guarantee a simplification of the valve commissioning.

All the valves can be equipped with solenoid coils with integrated electronics.

Typical applications for the qualitatively high-grade proportional screw-in cartridges are:  Sensitive adjustment of pressure, resp., volume flow  Speed control of hydro-motors  Cylinder control and positioning  Individual adjustment of clamping and tensioning force Further information about the compact proportional screw-in cartridges can be found under www.wandfluh.com

European oil & gas

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News

Work safe Petrotechnics has completed the implementation of its Proscient software platform on two UK offshore assets operated by Nexen Petroleum UK Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of CNOOC Limited.

Proscient is an operational performance and predictive risk platform that improves the safety-productivity dynamic in hazardous operations. The software combines operational management systems with daily workflows to improve the efficiency of operational assets, enabling organisations to standardise work practises, simplify business processes and manage risk.

Proscient offers the ability to ensure more work is done safely, efficiently and sustainably and can establish consistent practices across operations, driving new efficiencies in the process.

“Petrotechnics has a large, well established base in the UKCS of 48,000 users. We’re pleased with the results of rollout on Nexen’s assets,” adds Iain Mackay, executive vice president, Petrotechnics. “Proscient enables our clients to get more of the right work done safely and efficiently. This is becoming increasingly important in light of the current economic landscape and we are committed to helping clients achieve their goal of long term, safe production.”

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European oil & gas

Visible flow Shell has started to deploy E2open’s E2 Process Management to create visibility on their procured engineering materials along the supply chain, including logistics. The global Track and Trace initiative is designed to provide visibility on the flow of materials through procurement, transportation, and disposal, which enables alignment of the right engineering materials, at the right place, at the right time for production sites (i.e., assets).

The E2open solution enables end-to-end visibility for Shell’s material supply chains, and it will track materials from work order request to worksite. The Track and Trace program provides a number of operational benefits, including craft time efficiencies in maintenance execution and supply chain operations, optimised inventories, and reduced material costs and waste.

“We are pleased that E2open has been selected as the technology platform for the Track and Trace program at Shell,” said Mark Woodward, president and CEO, E2open. “By leveraging our technology, this mission-critical programme can provide not just the current location of unique materials, but also the past locations of any unique items. In turn, clients gain significant improvements in the planning and control of spend and item flows via a simplified way of collaborating, which is a major win for all parties involved.”

Customer focus Accenture has been selected by BP’s fuels and convenience retail business, initially in Europe, to help the company better understand the needs of its customers and create a more innovative and competitive customer experience.

“The fuels and convenience retail business is changing, with increased competition and new products and services providing customers with a menu of choices that they never had before, so we need to ensure that our customer offering is relevant, tailored and competitive,” said Olivier Martinet, lead for BP’s loyalty scheme agenda.

“By implementing a new customer relationship management model, powered by advanced customer analytics, BP will have a much deeper understanding of its customers’ needs and expectations,” said Neale Johnson, managing director in Accenture’s energy industry group. “This will help BP increase its overall share of the fuels and convenience retail market, while improving its customer focus to deliver a more innovative and competitive experience that is tailored, differentiated and digitally enabled.”

To deliver this service, Accenture will leverage its Analytics Innovation Centre in Greece and its Global Delivery Network in India.

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4 hayley group plC Following a large investment, huge stocks of Wave springs and Spiral rings are now available from Hayley Group PLC to compliment the full range of Retaining Rings. Materials include Carbon, Stainless (various grades) and Inconel. Using Wave springs can reduce traditional coil spring heights as much as 50 per cent, saving weight and costs as well as reducing overall assembly sizes.

Single, Overlap or Multi turns are stocked as standard. Spiral rings provide advantages that include 360-degree contact with the groove with no stamping burrs that can damage shaft/housing whilst being capable of withstanding higher axial loads than stamped parts.

Hayley Seals is part of the Hayley Group, a long established Midlands company specialising in engineering products and services for all types of industries from agriculture to mining, food processing, distilleries and breweries, utilities and power generation, as well as general engineering. The company has had a rapid expansion over the last 38 years and can now be found nationwide, including a branch in the Czech Republic.

Petar Ilic, director of Hayley Seals, who has been with the company for 30 years, says: “The Seals Department at Hayley has been incredibly successful. The team here at head office is extremely knowledgeable about the products we stock and are able to help customers with any queries they might have. We deliver a first class customer service, keep extensive stock on our shelves and offer same day delivery where possible.�

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13

sea A spy under the

As the subsea portfolios of oil and gas companies become larger and more diverse smart solutions are necessary, as Eric Doyle explains

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uman senses are natural monitoring systems. Informed decisions are a combination of a gut instinct and an analysis of information. But, in hard to reach places like the surface of Mars or in the subsea environment you need the right equipment to assist you in making the right choice.

The stakes have never been higher in subsea environments. Offshore production and storage of hydrocarbons is changing. Where once there was no option but to build a platform weighing upwards of 25,000 tonnes, now there is a wide spectrum of seafloor solutions. Oil and gas majors have made a commitment to these technological advancements over several years.

In the North Sea, there is an understanding that lowering operating costs is essential if the region is to extract its high yield of hard to reach reserves. Extending the longevity of assets and the careers of personnel working with them are critical aims, and new equipment must marry up with infrastructure that has been in place for decades. These are the challenges facing engineering leaders today.

Technical sense Operators and service companies have run the risk on subsea, with more than 750 of them in the UK, it simply Below has to work. Industry body Subsea UK estimates that there Eric Doyle is Aquaterra Energy’s are more than 53,000 people contributing to £8.9 billion worth of services and products in the country. Its aim is for regional director companies based in the UK to continue its global market lead of 45 per cent. Accordingly, every business involved has a responsibility to push the boundaries.

The range of technologies on offer seems staggering. The hardware available for deployment offshore has developed to a point where more than 16,000 jobs have been created

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since 2010. Engineers, divers and construction staff make up 48 per cent of the workforce, while manufacturing accounts for 19 per cent. These people have developed skills that will see them forge long-term and rewarding careers, and this is something that must continue. At Aquaterra Energy, we see our technologies as business enhancers, helping the UK to maintain its first class excellence from the seabed to surface.

Technology tomorrow Subsea UK believes its industry has become increasingly important to upstream exploration and production. It is vital for stimulating further investment on the UK Continental Shelf and in growing the UK’s export base. It has been the subject of investment for some time and the story is only beginning as businesses make subsea their future. The

Subsea

development of technology products and their application continues on a daily basis. If production levels are to be maintained, new technologies are vital. Whilst sometimes these can be specific enabling technologies, mainly it is about optimising current technology from within and outside of the sector to help oil and gas companies work smarter.

Environment, production reservoir, asset integrity and development design are all driving the desire for new technology. A prime example is the advances in Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs). No deepwater development can take place without one. The heavy reliance on ROVs has resulted in intense pressure on manufacturers and operators to regularly progress the technology of these machines and their associated equipment forward to ensure reliance, operability and flexibility to all underwater operations.

Hands-off accuracy Effective asset integrity management programmes are a prerequisite for a safe and profitable operation of any oil and gas company. The importance of asset integrity and inspection management cannot be overlooked as an oversight could hold the potential for major issues causing safety, environmental and fiscal risks. High profile incidents in some of the world’s foremost exploration and production hubs have signalled the fallibility of riser systems underwater. These served to justify the need for solutions that entrepreneurial young companies were creating to be expedited.

Aquaterra Energy is a world leading drilling riser specialist and we have developed a Riser Monitoring System (RMS), which is unique to the energy industry and will revolutionise the integrity management process. It acts as an underwater

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sensory system. We see it as having four key functions; to lessen human involvement, to extend the life of assets, to be the eyes and ears underwater and ultimately give peace of mind that the operation will be a success. These aspects are where the synergies of the technical and the emotional meet.

The RMS design utilises a combination of direct riser strain measurement, subsea data logging and riser analysis processing algorithms to generate accurate, real time operational guidance to optimise drilling and workover operations in water depths of up to 100m. It uses preprocessed computationally intensive data. This ensures that analysis, including the usually time intensive component fatigue utilisation determination, is rapid. It also provides a full range of potential input conditions, tabled in a multi-dimensional matrix. Measurement, evaluation and specification of key variables, specific to each strain cycle contained within the measured date, allow an accurate representation of the critical boundary conditions to be

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produced. This subsequently enables comparison with the pre-processed data, as well as directional fatigue assessment for each constituent component along the full riser length.

The system’s four specialist strain-measuring devices facilitate superior reliability and accuracy to alternative data acquisition methods. The gauges are protected from accidental damage by a casing that also contains the logging hardware, in combination with modular battery pack expansion slots, which facilitate up to five years logging time. Unlike conventional methods, abutment to the riser is by a specially developed subsea epoxy resin, achieving one of the product’s key objectives, measuring the riser and not the clamp. This improves riser strain measurement accuracy while eliminating the need for welding, which causes damage fatigue hot spots.

The system will give our customers operational peace of mind that they are operating at the safest level. The accurate and real-time guidance it generates on the fatigue life of

Subsea add value to our clients’ projects in the UK too. We believe the peace of mind it offers alongside cost savings will be transformational.

Continue the conversation There is a strong market for tried and tested, simple and well-engineered equipment. This is what Aquaterra Energy specialises in. But we recognise that innovation cannot exist in isolation and we listen closely to our clients too. We can offer both traditional solutions, at a good cost, as well as tailored systems to increase peace of mind, enhance safety and ultimately boost businesses’ bottom lines. Conversations with our clients continue on a daily basis. The growth of our business streams and company as a whole has been borne out of working closely together to solve problems and overcome barriers. We knew a heightened sensitivity towards health and safety and project critical risks associated with riser fatigue meant ingenuity in riser integrity management was urgent. We believe we have found the answer.

Smart subsea As the subsea portfolios of oil and gas companies become larger and more diverse and assets age, the industry has a greater need for smart solutions. We believe each challenge the industry faces provides the opportunity to discover something new, maximise production and minimise risk.

A comprehensive riser monitoring system can become the senses of the industry, aiding it to stop, look and listen at every blind spot. It can offer insight of the integrity of the complex riser, allow safe ongoing operations, extend asset and field life and save costs. The conditions of our industry will continue to test us. Environmental and technical obstacles in delivering projects will become even more challenging. It is vital that we strive for more, stretch and reach for continual improvement to ensure we remain at the head of the industry pack.

the riser will prevent a riser system being continually used despite having a depleted fatigue life. It will also avoid a system being scrapped too early, when money and time could be saved by safely extending its life. This would both increase profitability and minimise project risk.

Tried and tested Full-scale tests must be completed before a technology can be proved and the market will accept it. Testing must be completed to a level that is impervious to every test in industry. A full-scale prototype of our RMS unit was developed at the University of Cambridge in the structures laboratory of its University Engineering Department.

All elements of the system were tested and verified in partnership with the university to ensure maximum reliability. We have won a contract to supply the RMS to a client on the Norwegian Continental Shelf for which we are creating a bespoke system. We are confident the product will

Aquaterra Energy Eric Doyle is Aquaterra Energy’s regional director, Europe.

He is responsible for the company’s sales activity, growth and customer service in the UK and Europe. He has over 20 years’ experience working in the oil and gas and renewable energy industries. His roles included electrical engineering, HSEQ, and business development and most recently as VP sales and marketing for AGR field operations and managing director of AGR Integrity UK. Eric’s career has spanned many aspects of the industry from offshore drilling to subsea construction/engineering, and IMR through consultancy into asset integrity. He spent ten years offshore with Diamond Offshore Drilling eventually moving onshore to assume supervisory and managerial roles. During his time with Xodus Group, Eric was fundamental in the development of a renewable energy engineering division.

For further information please visit: aquaterraenergy.com

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control Team

The planning software making the hardest planning tasks easier.

By Tim Faulkner, Vice President EMEA ClickSoftware

T

Below Tim Faulkner, Vice President EMEA ClickSoftware

he upstream oil and gas industry is teetering on the threshold of a digital transformation. The hi-tech nature of the technology used in the industry lends itself to a constant drive to innovation and new thinking. One such area where new technology is being employed is in the management of workforces.

Traditionally, companies operating rigs have tended to rely upon the use of a paper-based system to manage staff on a rotating basis. As the industry has grown and developed, it has become increasingly clear that managing such a huge and diverse amount of people in this way is inefficient and no longer fit for purpose.

In its place we are seeing companies turn to sophisticated software to handle the thousands of calculations that go into managing a modern rig. From having the right equipment in place, to having the appropriate staff on call at any one time, more companies are employing software to ensure the maximum amount of precautions are being taken, efficiency is being driven, and the risk of human error is being reduced.

Managing a workforce The most obvious problem with managing a rig or platform is that it is done from a remote location. From an office on the mainland, dozens of staff need to be correctly deployed at any one time.

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Managers cannot take into account the potential for people to be ill or miss their connecting trip over to the rig.

From there, everything else can unravel and lead to a huge administrative burden to correct. Simple things like losing the rota sheets or errors written on the document can also add to the ripple effect for the rest of the business, leading to delays and even the possibility of rigs being halted as they do not have the appropriate staff on board.

By digitising this system, it allows businesses to be far more nimble. If a key skill set is missing or someone does report in sick, the central planning team can react far quicker, identify an alternative, and then work out a solution in a fraction of time a paper-based system would allow for. The administrative cost is reduced and the burden on the central planning team is lessened as data and information is readily available in a fraction of the time it would have been previously.

The right skills One of the other unique challenges for this industry is that workers have such a wide and varied amount of skills. Each are as important as the next and without one, the chain can fall apart. From a safety and operational point of view, having the right skill set available is amongst the most important parts of properly planning a workforce. Missing a crucial skill set can lead to disruption and, in extreme cases, jeopardise safety. Neither scenarios are ones businesses want to find

HSE

Cash process

themselves in, which is why reducing the possibility of human error is such a priority.

Yet with dozens of staff working at the same time, knowing the range of qualifications and skill sets available across the workforce in real-time is simply too much for one person to compute. That is why central planning software is being introduced which captures all of this information and helps planners by identifying which skills are needed for which job. Having a digital version of traditional rotas in place can act like a checklist for safety and qualifications, minimising the risk of anything going wrong.

Safety At the heart of all these considerations is the safety of the staff. Working in such extreme conditions means is it absolutely paramount that the safety of staff is protected.

Companies utilising management facilities software to enhance the transparency and accessibility of equipment, personnel and crews, are finding it is helping to maintain and improve upon safety records. It ensures the correct processes and regulations are met and adhered to, meaning risk is dramatically reduced.

This kind of software also means that should the worst happen, it can be relayed to the central team instantly, making response times to such incidents far quicker, thus increasing the likelihood of preventing a major incident.

By having an efficient workforce, introducing management software can also help improve the customer payment process, with greater accuracy of job completion and a more streamlined and quicker process. Bill contention is a regular occurrence in the industry, usually regarding the time and cost it takes to complete a specific job. Instead of having to troll through mountains of paperwork, by using a digital management solution, companies can accurately evaluate the time needed and taken to complete a job and the cost involved, thereby removing any potential delays in receiving payment.

It’s not just the current work that could improve either.

An accurate view of job completion rates helps provide the sales team with improved and accurate numbers to secure prospects. Having a definite picture of how long it takes to complete a job, be it price, risk management, emissions trading or technical support, allows the sales team to offer an accurate quote to potential new customers in an industry that spans multiple sectors including transport, energy and the military. Additionally with an overview of current capacity, sales teams are able identify where resource is available for new business or where a bigger push in a current area can come from.

Overall integrating the software means the order to cash process can be streamlined to ensure accurate and quick completion, while minimising loss. The industry is now able to offer a process that is streamlined from start to finish, a key step in not only securing new customers, but retaining current ones as well.

To steal a phrase from the drilling industry, software has really only just broken new ground in terms of what it can achieve. These initial deployments are having immediate impacts, but once more data is collected and processes are made as lean as possible, we could well see additional benefits brought to the industry. As the sector continues to struggle with rising production and the falling price of oil, now is an even more crucial time to avoid any form of unnecessary wastage.

It is time to address the key operational challenges within this diverse and resource challenged industry by allowing team leads to manage contractors and assemble crews from anywhere, anytime.

CLICKSOFTWARE ClickSoftware is the leading provider of automated mobile workforce management and service optimisation solutions for the enterprise, both for mobile and in-house resources. As pioneers of the ‘service chain optimisation’ concept, its solutions provide organisations with end-to-end visibility and control of the entire service management chain by optimising forecasting, planning, shift and task scheduling, mobility and real-time management of resource and customer communication.

For further information please visit: clicksoftware.com

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PROFILE

Norwegian Electric systems

system A quest for the perfect

Above Tommy Strand, product manager energy storage, at the Quest test stand at Janaflaten 10 Bergen, Norway Below NES delivers electrical propulsion solutions to state-ofthe-art car ferries

Founded in 2009, innovative, high-tech electrical firm Norwegian Electric Systems AS (NES) may be young, but its 35 years of in-house expertise in the electric marine market has resulted in a strong order backlog of 400 million NOK as of December 2014 for delivery in 2015 and 2016. Operating a provider of both low and medium voltage solutions across markets such as offshore, merchant marine, fishing, cruise, ferries and exploration, the company has further honed its knowledge and a reputation for excellence.

Focused on becoming the global leader in the electric marine market since its inception, NES has consistently exceeded the expectations of each customer, both in regards

to performance and the delivery of cuttingedge, reliable products, systems and service.

Having been involved in the development of over 4000 different electric systems, the company has used long-term knowledge to create innovative solutions such as the Quadro Drive frequency converter, a highly successful product that launched in 2010. Boasting superior performance, the Quadro Drive puts the customers’ vessel at the forefront when it comes to dynamics and flexibility.

The liquid-cooled four-quadrant Quadro Drive has a power rating up to 5000kW, making it suitable for the many industry wide applications.

The active rectifier in the system creates the possibility of regenerating the energy from the propeller and shaft back to the grid, whilst the power factor is always in unity and equal to one, so the grid’s capability is fully utilised. The result is a flexible and dynamic propulsion system, focusing on a high performance energy chain from the diesel motor to the propeller’s thrust.

On top of this, the Quadro Drive has a THD (total harmonic distortion) as low as 1.5 per cent.

Other parts of the NES total electric propulsion system are the groundbreaking Quadro Drive is BOSS (Black Out Safety System), which prevents a single electrical fault from causing a ship to lose its propulsion power, and RAS (Remote Assistance System), a product European oil & gas

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PROFILE

that reduces vessel downtime through online support that not only makes fault finding easier, but also more accurate. The unique product gives NES access to the vessel wherever it is in the world, which ensures optimum support.

Not a company to rest on its laurels, NES has recently presented its two new QUEST (Quadro Energy Storage Technology) systems to the market. With a philosophy of always preparing its diesel electric and hybrid electric systems with a modular ‘add on’ capability, NES can deliver Quest without the need for any adaption, thus making the new system a highly flexible and cost effective option. With Quest one or two installed, customers can save up to 40 per cent more fuel and will benefit from significant NOx and CO2 reductions.

The strengths of the innovative firm have resulted in a number of notable contracts, such as the recent signing of orders worth 95 million NOK for the Estonian Port Authority. Although the majority of work undertaken by NES is in the offshore support vessel and jack-up vessel markets, the reduction of oil prices led the firm to diversify its customer base and expand into less vulnerable markets. Having sold solutions to military naval vessels, the company has progressed into delivery of electrical propulsion to ultra modern car ferries.

Designed by Naval Architects and the engineers of LMG Marin, the ferries are to be owned and operated by the Port of Tallin; a total of four have been ordered, two of which will be built

by Remontowa, while the other two will be constructed by Sefine. Although competition from Germany and the USA was fierce, NES won the contracts through its ability to offer the optimum technical solution as well as competitive

Norwegian Electric systems

commercial terms. The scope of supply for these projects includes equipment such as Norwegian electric generators, Norwegian electric main switchboards, project management, the company’s innovative Black Out Safety System (BOSS) and system integration.

Additionally, NES signed a 35 million NOK contract for the supply of complete electric systems for two new ice breakers, type HD843 ICE, in December 2014. The scope of supply includes two Norwegian electric shaft generators, two Norwegian AUX generators, four Norwegian electric side thrust motors, four electric main switchboard, de-icing switchboard and emergency switchboard, all electrical calculations, engineering and commissioning and a sea trial.

Meanwhile, in January 2015 it was announced that Fafnir Offshore won the annual OSJ Environmental Award for its battery powered PSV, a Hayvard 833 WE ICE design that NES supplies. The vessel is the first to be installed with NES’s Quest two System; benefits of using it include a five to 20 per cent fuel reduction during steaming, a 25 to 30 per cent fuel reduction during standby and harbour and DP2 mode of up to 35 per cent fuel reduction.

This trend for growth looks set to continue for the innovative firm, as Hayvard Group ASA recently took the helm as NES’ majority shareholder following the purchase of shares from firms belonging to Jan Berg and Frithjof Hustig.

With 50.5 per cent ownership, the group aims to develop and deliver cutting edge ship technology to its customers through synergies, particularly between Hayvard Power & Systems and NES, as the subsidiary has the potential to provide valuable input to NES’ further product development.

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Above Fafnir Offshore PSV, hull no 126

DataOppdrag DataOppdrag has provided IT solutions for Norwegian Electric Systems since 2009. “Norwegian Electric Systems is a global player and offers 24/7 service.

We need a reliable and flexible IT supplier to gain access to our RAS wherever in the world our vessels are, and to update and communicate with our employees worldwide. Our partnership with DataOppdrag has resulted in significant reductions in our IT costs while we are simultaneously working more efficiently. We are also very pleased with the support and response time.” Jan Berg, Founder of Norwegian Electric Systems AS.

Norwegian Electric Systems (NES) norwegianelectric.com

Products Marine electrical systems

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Alicat Workboats

service A diverse

Aalco Alicat is one of the most respected names in the marine workboat industry through a dedication to high standards of design, engineering and careful consideration given to all aspects of performance and safety.

The company’s strong track record of product development means that it is continually developing new technologies and improved manufacturing techniques. With this in mind Aalco was a natural choice for Alicat to provide its aluminium and stainless steel material requirements for its vessels. Along with its stringent quality process, Aalco’s ability to provide a flexible and reliable service supports Alicat’s demanding build schedules.

Established in May 2009 as a subsidiary of shipbuilding firm Richards Dry Dock and Engineering Ltd (RDDE), Alicat Workboats was originally a designer and constructor of workboats that would operate as crew transfer vessels for the offshore wind sector.

Based at Richards Dry Dock on Southtown Road, Great Yarmouth, UK, Alicat has focused on developing close relationships with its customers and researching working conditions, different sea state, operator requirements and state-of-the-art technology; a strategy that has resulted in the company maintaining its reputation as a leader in the design and construction of vessels.

“Initially focusing on designs for craft to work in the offshore wind sector the research team met with naval architect Gavin Mair of Global Marine Design (GMD), based near Fremantle in Western Australia. Working closely with GMD, the traditional ‘Alicat’ design was developed and shortly afterwards construction started at Alicat’s Great Yarmouth base on the first 20m aluminium wind farm service vessel (WFSV),” says David Blake, business development manager at Alicat Workboats.

“Further research, development and customer interaction led to further designs offering boats

for all situations, with the latest technology and designed with the latest understanding of what operators and technicians encounter on a daily basis. Safety, comfort, reliability and performance are just some of the key factors focused on during the development of Alicat designs and to date Alicat has built 25 Alicat craft and eight specific designs,” he adds.

In 2012 RDDE further strengthened its service offering when it acquired the assets of Isle of Wight based boat builder South Boats.

New company South Boats IOW was formed and the acquisition enabled the group to continue supplying South Boats’ customers with high quality vessels. “Comparable to say, the Volkswagen Audi group scenario, Alicat and South Boats IOW have the same management team in the background but both boat builders have very independent vessel ranges and different design teams. The great thing from a customer’s perspective though is they will get ongoing support when they need it from either company and we have found some of the most successful operators have vessels from both ranges in their fleet,” highlights David.

Following the acquisition, the business invested in a major rebranding and established European oil & gas

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various divisions in 2013; these include Alicat Marine Design, Alicat Marine Electrical, Alicat Fabrication, Alicat Stainless Steel Fabrication, Alicat Precision Enginering and Alicat Hydraulics. “Onsite Alicat has multiple divisions and each manage their own autonomy.

The company has reinvested substantially and developed the facility into arguably Europe’s most complete small craft maintenance and repair facility. With a genuine understanding of operator’s needs, demands and the potential for expensive downtime the Alicat repair facility has been purposely arranged to host all major services onsite,” states David.

The reinvestment means that a vessel can arrive in Great Yarmouth at short notice, be lifted out of the water by Alicat’s 200 tonne mobile vessel lift and undertake any maintenance or repair required on a hard standing. On top of this, water and electricity supplies are available to all vessels. “Alicat also has its own inhouse naval design team that can offer consultancy services, designs for projects such as vessel modifications, refurbishment etc, and stability reports. The facility also keeps a good supply of parts, PPE and other items available for purchase so the vessel crew never need to go far to get their hands on what they need,” notes David.

Maintaining its focus on innovation and advanced thinking has proven fruitful for the boat builders, with vessels supplied to E.On, Seacat Services, Gardline, Dalby Offshore and Iceni Marine over the last 12 months. “We have continued to build upon these relationships and are currently building vessels at both yards for some of these customers. We are also building vessels on spec and these are available for sale now. Two of our vessels will be on display at this year’s Seawork Exhibition on the 16th to 18th June; we will have a large presence from both yards, so people are invited to come along to see the vessels and meet the team at berths V27 and V28,” says David.

A recent contract for the firm is with Dalby Offshore to construct a 23m transfer vessel; announced in the final quarter of 2014, the vessel is due to be delivered in July 2015 and will be the sister vessel to the Dalby Swale, which was delivered in 2014. “The Dalby Swale has proven a fantastic craft with operators, crew and technicians alike, so we are very excited about building another one for Dalby, which will be in total the seventh Alicat in their fleet. The vessel has proven

Alicat Workboats

extremely popular due to its reliability, seakeeping and load carrying capability. The crew and technicians also enjoy the vessel as she boasts some of the lowest readings in noise and vibrations around, resulting in a much more comfortable journey. The boats are also finished to the highest quality and have a modern galley, shower rooms, accommodation, wi-fi and entertainment systems.”

With a strong order book and strong customer base, Alicat is in a coveted position as it looks to enjoy a highly profitable and successful 2015. However, the company is aware that for shipbuilding to grow in the UK, it must work with organisations such as schools and colleges to provide opportunities to train and potentially shape the future careers of young people. “We currently have ten apprentices at our Great Yarmouth facility, a number we aim to increase throughout 2015. Because we are a diverse company, we try to give our apprentices the opportunity to cross train in different skills, which allows them to determine what they are good at, while also keeping the role stimulating,” says David.

Moving forward, as Alicat continues to retain its competitive edge through innovation, the company also looks to expand all areas of its business, while also strengthening its workforce through training, education and apprenticeship opportunities.

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Charity and Taylor Charity and Taylor (electronic services) Ltd have been pleased to be associated with Alicat Workboats for many years, designing and installing the electronics packages and satellite communications on all Alicat Workboats built to date.

As an Admiralty Charts Agent, Charity and Taylor services also extend to the supply of both paper and electronic marine charts and publications.

In addition, to supply full installation packages Charity and Taylor are service agents for most major brands of marine electronics equipment offering 365 a day call out for general support and repairs.

Alicat Workboats alicatworkboats.com

Services  Specialise in boat building, small craft maintenance and repair  Acquired the assets of South Boats in 2012  Have maintained strong order book despite a challenging market

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support A strong

Lankhorst Ropes

maintains a strong tie to the past that dates back over 250 years to 1751, when the company was established as a ropery and sailmakers loft in Sneek, the Netherlands. The company first became known as Lankhorst after Nikolaas Jurgen Lankhorst took over the company from his in-laws during 1803. Today Lankhorst is a worldwide supplier of rope and vessel mooring lines, which form the core of its business as the largest company within the Lankhorst group.

A major milestone for the company came in 2012, when the Royal Lankhorst Euronete Group was acquired by WireCO WorldGroup Inc. “Since 2012 Lankhorst Ropes has been a member of the WireCo WorldGroup, with its head office in Kansas City, USA,” elaborates Lankhorst Ropes commercial director, Sérgio Leite. “WireCo WorldGroup is the global leader in manufacturing, engineering, and distributing wire rope, wire rope assemblies, synthetic rope and electromechanical cable. With a truly global reach, WireCo WorldGroup and Lankhorst can deliver the right products for clients’ equipment and application no matter where their worksites might be.”

Lankhorst Ropes presently divides its business into three divisions that are comprised of its maritime division, with sales offices in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Spain, United Arab Emirates, Brazil and Australia, as well as strategic stock locations globally; an offshore division, which trades synthetic ropes in the name of Lankhorst Euronete Portugal, S.A. and operates from Maia and Viana do Castelo (Portugal) and more recently from Rio Janeiro

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(Brazil) and steel wire ropes for offshore applications produced by WireCo WorldGroup manufacturing units in the name of Lankhorst Ropes; and its Heavy Lifting Division which brings its expertise in rope construction to meet the demand for high performance offshore lifting slings. It also trades synthetic ropes in the name of Lankhorst Euronete Portugal, S.A. and operates from Maia and Viana do Castelo (Portugal).

“Offshore heavy lift is a growing market for Lankhorst Ropes,” explains Sérgio. “With sales and technical teams in The Netherlands and Portugal, the company has a clear objective – to raise the bar for technical performance of synthetic rope slings in heavy lift applications. An ambitious research and test programme will leave Lankhorst well placed to build on early successes.”

Synthetic ropes offer many advantages over steel wire ropes in heavy lift applications.

Synthetic ropes are as strong as conventional steel wire rope but seven times lighter therefore allowing contractors of optimise crane lift capacity. In response to the growing demand for synthetic ropes, Lankhorst has significantly strengthened its heavy lift and technical teams.

This has been bolstered by WireCo Worldgroup’s acquisition of Endenburg BV’s assets, which took place in 2014 adding to the company’s experience of handling monopiles for offshore wind projects as well as the abandonment and recovery of deepwater pipelines. As such, Lankhorst has already won a number of heavy lift projects and is positioning itself at the forefront of market innovation in the sector to ensure that it remains a leading name in heavy

PROFILE

lift operations. “Lankhorst Ropes is committed to the on-gong development of synthetic fibre ropes. The state-of-the-art research and development facility at its Global Synthetics Lankhorst Euronete location in Maia, Portugal provides fundamental research and product development to support its Global Synthetics Lankhorst Euronete division that markets the brands Lankhorst, Euronete, Phillystran and Oliveira,” Sérgio says. “In addition to the research and development facility, WireCo has recently invested in pilot-scale equipment designed to strengthen Lankhorst Ropes’ research capabilities into yarn extrusion, and ultimately synthetic fibre rope performance in heavy lift applications.”

Through its dedicated research and development teams and co-operation with DSM Dyneema, Lankhorst has pioneered a new system capable of handling heavy loads at depths of well over three kilometres. “Lankhorst Ropes has recently develop Lankodeep AHC rope, which incorporates fully optimised cyclic bending over sheave (CBOS) fatigue and load bearing characteristics for use in the deepwater deployment systems. It is based on special Dyneema grade cyclic bending optimised fibre and a proprietary rope coating technology and represents a new rope design with 12 stranded braids where each strand is a three-strand rope,” Sérgio elaborates. “The rope can be inspected and is also repairable, it is an innovative solution for deepwater deployment and is capable of handling heavy loads at depths of well over three kilometres, where steel wire is not efficient anymore. The Lankodeep AHC rope has already

Lankhorst Ropes

found its first commercial success, with two ropes of 3100 metre length, placed by Jaya - the leading offshore energy services group that is now part of the Mermaid Marine Group of companies. Jaya will fit the rope into 110-ton cranes designed by J.J. Offshore for two new 88-metre ships.”

As Lankhorst continues to take advantage of its impressive momentum and growing strength it will seek to solidify its present base and expand to offer its clients new innovations well into the future, as Sérgio concludes, “Over the short term Lankhorst will be focused on increasing its position in the markets where the company is present while at the same time entering into and growing its position in smaller but specialised market niches. Over the next three years the company’s intention is to develop new synthetic rope solutions that can replace traditional solutions and allow the technology to exceed the present state-of-the-art, giving our customers new opportunities and horizons.”

European oil & gas

Lankhorst has already won a number of heavy lift projects and is positioning itself at the forefront of market innovation in the sector to ensure that it remains a leading name in heavy lift operations

Lankhorst Ropes lankhorstropes.com

Services Next generation mooring systems

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The marine

DUC Diving BV

has realised both growth and development over the past 30 years, growing from an experienced & reliable inshore/ coastal diving company, into today being a fully functional marine contractor & offshore construction services provider, operating globally and furthermore achieving successful diversification across a wide spectrum of industrial sectors.

Offshore renewable energy, oil and gas constructions, submarine cable projects, salvage projects and large inshore projects are some of the main sectors it currently supplies to and in highlighting this fact, the company recently formed the DUC Marine Group, of which it strongly believes the name describes better its prime capabilities and activities.

These services include inspection, salvage, concrete pouring and repair, construction activities, UXO-clearance, vessel charter, windfarm support activities as well as oil and gas services.

DUC Diving never relies on a ‘one size fits all’ approach. All DUC-divers and technicians are trained, qualified and committed to achieve excellence in everything they do. Contrary to

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most diving companies DUC employs almost all divers itself. This is done to keep the gained experience in the company.

DUC Diving is certified by Bureau Veritas (BV) for: 66 Quality: ISO 9001; 66 Environment: ISO 14001; 66 Health and Safety: SCC** DUC Diving is member of Achilles – FPAL.

The company is in the last phase of obtaining its membership with IMCA and its final audit is planned for mid-2015 – the company is very confident of successfully becoming a full member of IMCA diving division.

MPSV SOLUTION As a result of its existing coastal DSV (Ram) being fully employed most of the year, historically DUC chartered vessels from the spot market. It appeared however that these vessels didn’t meet its requirements: or they were too small (big Multicats) or they were actually a bit overkill for the jobs (the purpose build DSV’s).

Therefore DUC started to design its own medium

PROFILE

DUC Diving

DUC Diving never relies on a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

All DUC-divers and technicians are trained, qualified and committed to achieve excellence in everything they do. Contrary to most diving companies DUC employs almost all divers itself

sized DSV, which will be positioned exactly in between these vessels in the DSV market.

The new DSV is an all Dutch product. Owners (DUC Marine Group), naval architect (Hernand Jansen), hull yard (Shipcon) and outfitting-yard (Hoekman Shipbuilding).

The new ‘Solution’ is currently under construction and expected for delivery during December 2015. The vessel will have a length of 55 metres, a draft min./max of 2.80 metres – 3.50 metres and a cruising speed of 12 knots.

The ship will be powered by a Diesel-Electric system. Powered by six Volvo Penta D-13 at 475 kW each, aft thrusters comprised of two electric Omega Verhaar azipods at 650 kW each and two electric bow thrusters at 450 kW each, out of which one is of the swing-up type. The vessel will be equipped with a DPII system and has an impressive DP-capability plot.

The ‘Solution’ will include a knuckle boom crane mid-ship (90 Tm) and a knuckle boom crane (290 Tm) located on its aft deck. The vessel’s main crane will include a ten-tonne active heave compensated winch as well as man-riding capacity of up to two tonnes. Her four-point mooring with CT-winches, combined

with her removable bulwarks and her 250 m2 free deckspace makes the vessel ideal for diving, ROV-operations and small offshore construction works. At her stern she has a six metre roller, and there is the option to install a 50 ton tugger winch. A 20 ton A-frame will be installed at the yard. Two Ø1,20 m moon pools are installed, so she is also perfectly suitable for survey works.

The ‘Solution’ will also be able to accommodate a sizeable crew with sleeping arrangements on board for 42 people and the ability to accommodate additional client offices on the vessel’s upper deck. Extra measurements have been taken to avoid noise and vibrations in the accommodations. All cabins will be equipped with TV, internet and air-conditioning.

RAM When undertaking operations in coastal waters DUC is able to call on its existing multipurpose and diving support vessel, ‘Ram’. She measures 56 metres in length and is equipped with a remote controlled knuckle-boom crane located mid-ships in the bow area, as well as a second crane on her PS-aft. She has a four-point mooring system (1,5 ton Flipper-Delta x 600 m) but European oil & gas

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additionally the Ram can also be equipped with extendable spud poles of up to 27 metres long!

The vessel is perfectly suited for diving operations due to the presence of breathing gas compressors and an on-board decompression chamber, all fully IMCA-compliant. Furthermore the permanent accommodation aboard the Ram can accommodate a compliment of four crewmembers and five passengers. The Ram can operate up to 30 nautical miles off the coast, making it suitable for a host of operations.

Equipment DUC Marine Group is able to respond quickly to the needs of any project and can quickly assemble the required personnel and equipment. Besides the sea-going vessels it operates a small inland work vessel and several small workboats, including a seaworthy RIB (2 x 250 hp, 45 knots!), equipped with an SRS-dive system. The company owns several containerised decompression chambers (Ø 1500mm as well as Ø 1800mm), LARS-systems, Nitrox-equipment, a 2500 bar HP waterjet, airlifts,

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salvage bags, Saab Falcon ROV, and numerous equipment for welding, cutting, drilling and underwater concrete injection works. It also owns a robot for cleaning jetty piles for its ‘pile encapsulation system’.

UXO Since March 2014 the Ram has been continuously engaged in the inspection and removal of unexploded ordinance (UXO) in the North Sea, off the coast of Germany. To host all passengers (UXO-experts, ROV-pilots and divers) an extra TLQ was placed on her deck. Due to her high block-factor and low centre of gravity the Ram is extremely stable and her rolling due to waves and swell proved to be considerable less than other work vessels working together on the same job-site.

Renewable Industry With its current and upcoming vessels, DUC Marine Group is ready to serve clients across the world and within different sectors. During

PROFILE

2013 – 2014 for example, the company received a contract from RWE Innogy for works on the offshore windfarm Nordsee-Ost, located some 30 kilometres northeast of the Island of Helgoland in the German Bight. The contract called for the removal of temporary grout- and hydraulic lines, which had been utilised during the installation of 49 offshore foundation jackets. In total the company removed some 29 km of hoses running from a service station at the top of the jackets to the sleeves at the bottom of the structure.

In executing this project DUC teamed up with the Rope Access Group, based in the Netherlands, to assist in the necessary industrial climbing works. Following seven months in operation the partnership proved to be very successful for both DUC Diving and the Rope Access Group.

Together several projects have been undertaken very successfully. The co-operation can thus serve clients from ‘Top to Bottom’.

Other examples of projects undertaken in the renewables are the repairs and installation of several boat landings, general inspection works (above and underwater), installation of underwater transponders incl. cabling, burial of export cables loops and debris removal in cable areas before trenching.

Other projects DUC Marine works in several different sectors, they can be split in: 66 Offshore & renewables; 66 Salvage- and wreck removal; 66 Harbour- and industrial works; 66 And various other jobs.

Last years DUC Marine Group performed several salvage- and wreck removal jobs, varying from small inland yachts up to a sunken 650

ton container gantry crane in the North Sea, seven small wrecks in the North-Sea and a 1600 ton sunken dry-dock in Holland. Its teams also worked on salvage projects in Sierra Leone and Nigeria. It salvaged numerous of anchors and tons of chains in a big ‘cleaning campaign’ during a few months in the anchorages in front of the Dutch main ports.

The business executed several inspection and repair jobs in Turkey as well in Romania for hydropower plants, repaired slipways shipyards in Holland, worked on numerous sluices, locks and other industrial projects all over Europe.

In Flushing it installed some 4800 aluminium anodes on sheet piles. For RWE it worked on cooling-inlets of a new coal power plant.

With its ‘Ram’ the company undertook several soil investigation campaigns. Not only using a big vibrocorer, but also with an underwater CPT. As the company awaits the arrival of its new vessel, DUC Marine Group stands ready to serve clients within the offshore oil and gas market and beyond.

European oil & gas

DUC Diving

DUC Diving BV ducdiving.com ducmarinegroup.com

Services Inshore and offshore marine support and underwater services

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Not a regular knowledge

base ARCA has achieved continuous growth and a strong reputation since its first patent was filed in 1917. Today Germany based ARCA Regler GmbH is a globally active developer, manufacturer and marketer of quality control valves. With such a long history ARCA employs an unmatched experience in valve applications and market demands of the process industry.

ARCA operates as head office of the ARCA Flow Group, which also includes companies such as ‘FELUWA’ pumps, ‘WEKA’ cryogenic components and ‘von Rohr Armaturen’. The still family owned group of companies continues to deliver benchmark products as well as superior after sales and maintenance services to the process industry worldwide.

Since it was previously featured in European Oil & Gas Magazine, the innovative firm has maintained its focus on research and development to meet the specific needs of its customers, especially finding solutions to unique challenges within the oil and gas industry. Managing director Markus Dönni highlights: “ARCA valves have helped ensure production and process reliability in the industry for many years; we have a wide

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range of precision engineered control valves available ranging from DN15 (1/2) to DN700 (28 inch) as well as PN16 to PN400 (ANSI 1502500) sizes. In addition, we have special purpose valves for all media handled in chemical and petrochemical industry.”

Referring to the most recent invention of ARCA’s ‘Moonshine Trim’ Technical Director Lothar Grutesen gives a detailed example, how ARCA’s products support the specific needs of its customers in the oil and gas industry: Processes based on the reaction of a process fluid under high pressure and at a high reaction temperature (possibly with the addition of a catalyst), are of major significance in the chemical and petrochemical industry. If these are continuous processes, they are always connected with level and pressure controllers for the reaction vessel and thus also with the associated control valves that transfer the product or the process gas from the reaction vessel to the downstream processes.

A representative example of such processes is the hydrodesulphurisation (or ‘HDS’) in the petrochemical industry, in which mineral oil products are desulphurised by hydrogenation (reaction of the sulphur compounds with hydrogen). HDS processes are absolutely indispensable in refineries due to today's strict environmental protection regulations, since almost all important mineral fuels such as diesel fuels, fuel oil and also petrol consist exclusively

PROFILE

of hydrogenated components.

The feedstock is preheated together with gaseous hydrogen and fed into the reaction vessel. The catalytic reaction takes place at pressures of up to 200 bar and temperatures of up to 370 °C. Since the downstream processes take place at considerably lower pressures, extremely high demands are placed on the control valves used for the blowdown of the product: 66 high pressure ratio up to x = p/p1 = 190 bar/200 bar 66 cavitation and partial evaporation of the product.

66 corrosion resistance to the H2S and ammonia content resulting from the hydrodesulphurisation.

66 resistance to blockages due to solid particles, in particular with respect to the catalyst.

Multi-stage valves are absolutely necessary for this application. Ideally, the trim of a multi-stage valve is designed to maintain same pressure ratio xi at each control stage. This leads to individual rated flow coefficients on each stage, which necessitates greater effort for the design and the processing of the valve trim, but will pay off with regard to the service life and operational safety of the control valve.

In addition to the pure fluidic design of the valve trim, the solid contamination of the process fluid must be considered for HDS applications, i.e. the valve may not ‘clog up’ due to the solids contained in the product.

The maximum size of a spherical particle, which (geometrically regarded) can pass through all the bottlenecks of the valve can be taken as a good measure of the permeability of a valve to solids. Since the 1st stage always is the one with the smallest rated flow coefficients CV, it naturally forms the critical bottleneck of each multi-stage valve.

The cross-section of any flow passage can be estimated from the Bernoulli pressure equation to be approximately 27.8 mm² per rated CV. The optimum shape of a throttle point with regard to the ‘permeability’ to solids is naturally a circular cross-section - an area of 27.8 mm² results in a diameter (and thus also a maximum particle size) of 5.9 mm.

The newly developed MS-design, where a flow channel in the shape of a semi-circle is milled into a multiple-guided plug stem for each stage (fig. 1), ideally implements these requirements in a robust and functionally reliable multi-stage trim.

ARCA Regler

Fig. 1: 4-stage trim type MS4

The respectively used milling bit is defined according to the KVs value of the respective throttle stage, thus optimising the shape of the throttle point when the valve is 100 % open (fig. 2). The actual characteristic curve of the valve, which closely approximates to an equal percentage characteristic, is then created by the CNC controlled milling depth.

Fig. 2: Cross-section of a throttle stage in the MS trim (with maximum possible particle size)

Apart from the design and shape of the control stages, the protection of the sealing edges is of particular significance for the lifetime of the valve. The following requirements apply to this area: 66 The sealing edges of throttle element and seat ring must be specially protected against damage by cavitation and erosion.

66 With regard to the permeability for solids, the sealing seat itself may not form the bottleneck in the valve.

Both features are achieved by means of overtravel. In the closed position a closed sealing line forms between seat ring and valve plug the seat leakage rate can be even Class V. The throttle openings of the individual control stages open only after exceeding the overtravel (fig. 3).

At this moment, however, the free flow crosssection at the sealing seat is already a multiple of the cross-section of the first throttle stage, means the flow velocity at the sealing seat is that small that damage to the sealing edges is ruled out.

As long as the valve overtravel is larger than the maximum particle size of the first control stage, this automatically ensures that the sealing seat does not form the bottleneck for solids.

European oil & gas

The still family owned group of companies continues to deliver benchmark products as well as superior after sales and maintenance services to the process industry worldwide

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PROFILE

ARCA Regler

ABOVE Fig. 3a: MS4 closed

ABOVE Fig. 3b: MS4 end of overtravel

Sealing edges in contact

Seat/plug partial opening

Control openings closed

Control ports start of opening

Lothar completes the explanation of his invention by outlining: “Due to the rather simple geometry of throttle body and seat ring, MS-type valve trims can be manufactured in all materials - even in tungsten carbide or ceramics - thus giving rise to a wide range of uses in all critical relaxation processes”.

Looking to the future, ARCA Regler is preparing to exhibit its technologically refined, safe, reliable and cost-effective solutions to clients and peers at Achema, the world forum for chemical engineering and the process industry, from 15-19 June in Frankfurt, Germany this year.

“With our group of companies we will be based in Hall 8.0, booth Number G94, where we will exhibit DN 700 valves and other inventions such as our Moonshine Trim,” concludes Markus.

ARCA Regler GmbH arca-valve.com

Services Control valve solutions

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PROFILE

VandeGrijp

A strong

Founded in 1928, The Netherlands based independent manufacturing and trading firm VandeGrijp has developed into a leading specialist in the production of pipes, pipe constructions and the rental of pipeline systems for on and offshore projects. “We have a long history, which began when a man called Vandegrijp began to reclaim a large area of land in the area where we are now based. At some point in the 1950s, we moved to large scale production of pipelines for dredging firms to move sand; it was around this time we realised that building pipelines is more or less the same as building tube structures, so we developed our services in manufacturing tubes for the construction industry. Today our focus is on the fabrication of tubes and tubular structures, which is 50/50 in the dredging and offshore industries,� explains Paul Nederlof, managing director at VandeGrijp.

Split into two companies, VandeGrijp IGS, which focuses on manufacturing, and VandeGrijp Rental, which offers tailor-made solutions through temporary pipeline systems and floating equipment for infrastructural

projects, the Papendrecht headquartered group is able to focus its attentions on providing its customers with unique, custom-made high quality solutions. For example, VandeGrijp IGS leads the way in producing a wide range of equipment such as pipes, pipe sections, cones, reels, and tapered reducers. It supplies not only in bulk, but also for specific single pieces in common, high-tensile or wear-resistant material grades. VandeGrijp Rental, meanwhile, stocks approximately 60 km of pipes for pipeline systems and also offers pontoons and split hopper barges when tailor made solutions are required urgently.

Production facilities at the ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 3824-2 certified group include a pipe mill with a six metre plate rolling machine, with plate thickness available from five millimetres to 25 millimetres and diameter from 500 millimetres to 1200 millimetres.

VandeGrijp also has a construction department with two three metre plate rolling machines, that offer plate thickness from ten millimetres to 80 millimetres and a diameter from 450 millimetres up to 4500 millimetres, as well European oil & gas

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Our speciality is roll bending steel,” confirms Paul. “We make pipelines for dredging firms, while our tube fabrication services are used in projects within the oil and gas industry

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as a length of up to 50 metres. There is also a large tube assembly area, with one three metre plate rolling machine, that can deliver plate thickness from 20 millimetres to 150 millimetres and a diameter up to 8200 millimetres and a length of up to 120 metres.

Pipes and tubes are assembled using single, twin and triple SAW welding. It also boasts a ro-ro barge loading quay wall for heavy and large tubes.

“Our speciality is roll bending steel,” confirms Paul. “We make pipelines for

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dredging firms, while our tube fabrication services are used in projects within the oil and gas industry. This could mean making tubes for jackets and constructional components for offshore clients; as long as the products need to be in tube form we can make them.

We are currently working on the construction of a machine for Fistuca, a young company that has developed a new offshore pile driving technology. It is an interesting project as we are building the complete hammer, which is five metres in diameter.”

This BLUE Piling Technology from Fistuca is a revolutionary new pile driving technology that uses water as a ram weight. Advantages of this technology include very low underwater noise levels that comply with the stringent German offshore noise regulations, lower fatigue levels, good scalability, and low tensile stresses in the material, which has the potential to result in significant savings for offshore foundations. For a more detailed explanation of the BLUE Piling technology please visit www.fistuca.com where an animation describes it in much more detail.

PROFILE

“Other Projects include the recent production of piles for jack up legs, which was for Volker Steel under contract for Allseas. We also made some piles for a pile template for ASK Steel, which was contracted by Heerema Marine Contractors. We don’t necessarily work for the offshore companies directly, but deliver the tubes to contractors that assemble larger structures from them.”

With the group’s production facility running to full capacity, VandeGrijp will focus on expansion over the next 12 months, which

will enable it to take on more projects and enhance its services further. In addition, Paul sees opportunities to improve customer service through increasing the availability of VandeGrijp stock, as he concludes: “We are strategically located and most of our customers are within a 150 mile radius of us, which is very convenient, however, we want to make our service more easily available. To do this we could make our products available online, which would not only enable customers to order from us more easily, but would also boost turnaround times.”

European oil & gas

VandeGrijp

Production facilities at the ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 3824-2 certified group include a pipe mill with a six metre plate rolling machine, with plate thickness available from five millimetres to 25 millimetres and diameter from 500 millimetres to 1200 millimetres VandeGrijp vandegrijp.com/en

Services Manufacture and trade heavy walled tubes, pipes and parts

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up Pumped

SPP Pumps has established a reputation that reaches all corners of the globe, and by focusing on service and quality the company is set to expand rapidly over the coming years.

Now occupying a world leading position in the centrifugal pump industry, SPP Pumps has experienced a long and successful history defined by growth and expertise. Founded back in 1875, The Pulsometer Engineering Company Ltd established itself as a significant player in the UK market. After nearly a century of activity, it merged with Sigmund Pumps of Gateshead in 1961 and SPP Pumps was formed as one of the largest pump companies in Europe. Today, under the Indian Kirloskar Brothers (KBL) group, the company occupies leading positions in a number of industrial sectors including, fire protection, water, oil and gas, and energy. SPP Pumps has a main R&D, manufacturing and testing purpose built site in the UK, along with a number of local sites in all five continents.

The company has a very strong presence with the oil and gas industry, in which it manufactures fire protection pumps, seawater lifting systems and other offshore processes. Its spread across the global industry is vast. With many of the major oil companies as customers, SPP has installed over 450 pumps in 70 oil fields, serving to prove its high regard within the industry. Its industrial fire protection division has a similar reputation, serving a range of sites

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from high-rise buildings to warehouses. Of note, many buildings in London’s Canary Wharf complex, as well as the Shard are all protected

by SPP fire pumps. The Shard represents a significant highlight for the company: “We had to come up with some innovative fire pump solutions, with a multi-stage, multi-outlet pump, to service the needs of the building in a very cost effective and space saving way,” says Bob Tichband, general sales manager for SPP Pumps.

Acquisition by KBL in 2003 was a major point in SPP’s history. “It was the catalyst to propel the business to the strong position where it is today,” expressed Bob. Equal to the support provided by such a large company, however, are the many strengths within SPP’s own operations.

Adherence to producing the highest quality and reliability standards in the industry is at the core of the firm’s business and with a range of bespoke systems being produced at the site, lean manufacturing processes are crucial to achieving these standards. The staff that it employs and the service that it delivers are also central: “It’s all about the people and the attitude of those people,” emphasises Bob. “That’s our biggest differentiator; we look to provide world-class service from start to finish.”

SPP Pumps is focused on remaining a UK manufacturer, and highly values its presence at Coleford in the Forest of Dean. Here, the company is one of the region’s largest employers

PROFILE

and it is committed to providing support and growth to the area. However, whilst being a valued UK business, the company is a very strong exporter. As Bob explains: “Between 60 and 70 per cent of what we manufacture is exported abroad.” One example of the company’s successful export horizon is its position in South East Asia. Recently, SPP Pumps won two contracts to supply fire protection systems to a luxury resort in Bali and a manufacturing facility for Suzuki. “We have got a very strong business in this region,” highlights Bob. “Winning contracts in that area is common.”

The future for SPP Pumps is all about growth and expansion, and recent developments within the company exemplify how it is gearing up to achieve this. A strong arm of the business is its aftermarket and service division. Previously it operated three separate businesses for field service, UK service centres and parts. Bob explains how this was ineffective: “They were all individual businesses and in some cases they

well as providing more opportunities for the local community. The company also looks to install a world-class research and development facility there to further establish its position as a pioneering player in the industry. Moving inside, the facilities investment will also be directed towards new machinery, hydraulic and mechanical design software and capabilities.

“Hydraulic design is something that is dying out in the UK and we’re looking to reinvigorate that,” says Bob. SPP also looks to follow in the footsteps of its parent company being one of the only pump manufacturers to use 3D printing, meaning bespoke designs and manufacturing within the plant can facilitate more innovation.

SPP Pumps has a commitment to its people and to the quality it delivers to its large customer base across the globe. With a focus on rapid expansion, both in terms of facilities and export markets, the company is positioning itself to continue the success it has achieved over its vast history.

SPP Pumps

Now occupying a world leading position in the centrifugal pump industry, SPP Pumps has experienced a long and successful history defined by growth and expertise

SPP Pumps Limited spppumps.com

Services Manufacture centrifugal pumps and associated systems

were competing against each other. To fix it, we rationalised them under one management team – refocused and realigned them into a much more collaborative organisation. We wanted our aftermarket division to be more innovative and proactive in terms of providing solutions to our clients’ problems, whatever they may be.”

It also has investment plans to expand the manufacturing facilities in the Coleford plant.

Investment comes from winning part of the regional development fund last year, and is crucial to the company making sure it has the facilities to cope with its increasing growth as European oil & gas

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A solid

foundation

Founded in 1985, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company Ocean Oilfield has grown to become a highly competitive company serving the oil and gas industry in the Middle East and Asia. Based in the UAE, the company’s main services include refurbishment and repair of rigs and ships, including vessel conversion, tug and barge construction, steel fabrication and machinery overhaul. With around 400 highly trained employees Ocean Oilfield has the expertise to carry out maintenance both offshore and at its large dedicated facility in Sharjah, UAE, which has a number of facilities capable of supporting ship building and heavy steel fabrication projects. Having gained ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 accreditations, the company is well established to carry out projects to high quality, environmental and safety standards, and backs this up with its own detailed attention to inspection and quality assurance.

Where Ocean Oilfield has established a strong reputation is in the maintenance and refurbishment of rigs. Its main scope of work on the rigs ranges from small repair and maintenance projects to extensive replace or refurbish services, including: steel replacement, accommodation refurbishment, hull painting and leg and spud can repair. The company

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has a growing portfolio of projects that it has successfully completed at the jetty side of its yard and has two maintenance projects currently ongoing offshore. These projects have laid the foundations for future success.

“We are in bidding stages for various new build and rig refurbishment projects, and are close to securing two or three of these,” operations manager, John Brocklesby tells European Oil and Gas Magazine. “Much of our revenues at the moment come from repeat business as we offer excellent service.”

The company’s vision is to achieve farreaching success in every field by developing innovative, integrated and enterprising worldclass service in the global offshore oil and gas market. Recent activities have seen Ocean Oilfield prove its worth in the tank storage segment of the industry. In March 2015 the company successfully completed a project to build six storage tanks. John explained: “We have completed this successfully because of excellent operations support, man management, forward planning and good execution, but most of all because of our attention to high safety standards.” Elsewhere it continues to show its strength in this segment by building a new 29 diesel and fuel oil storage tank terminal, which includes the complete installation of tanks and

PROFILE

accompanying facilities. Another demonstration of its fabrication strengths is in a uniquely designed spreader beam with an SWL of 3200 tonnes that the company fabricated for an offshore client.

In other segments, Ocean Oilfield is clearly demonstrating its strengths in the refurbishment sector. It has recently been involved in the refurbishment of converting two jack up rigs into accommodation barges. Additionally, the company has undertaken the refurbishment of a snubbing barge, which has involved the installation of new accommodation, generators and fire pumps.

Ocean Oilfield is in the process of successfully growing into the complete rig solutions company it strives to be. Part of this growth involves developing a proven record of service in all fields across the oil and gas industry, but it also involves learning and developing the best expertise as it approaches each new market. “In the next 12 months we intend to complete already won projects with the same commitment as previous projects, but implement the lessons we have learnt from past projects,” John highlights. “We hope to improve greatly in areas we believe we are lacking in to push forward with our vision of growth.” John adds: “Our main strengths would be that we are always striving to improve whilst maintaining high safety standards. Our budget management is excellent, and delivery time and construction execution is second to none.”

The company does not operate in ignorance of how competitive the market is. Its mission is

Ocean Oilfield

to be at the forefront of this market by exceeding managerial, technical and operational standards.

Critical to achieving this is its commitment to the development of its service portfolio. With big ambitions, Ocean Oilfield markets itself as being capable to undertake any major EPC project across the globe. This is a promise it can back up by being part of Amwaj group, a network of companies that provide offshore services in installation management, marine support and logistics, fabrication and engineering, catering, life support and transport. At present it is clear that Ocean Oilfield has built itself a solid foundation, and looking forward the company appears set to continue achieving the success and growth it strives for. “Over the next three to five years, our goals are to become the market leader within the industry so that Ocean Oilfield is the first name on our clients lips when approaching new projects or expansion programmes,” explains John. “I also hope that we are in a position to undertake our first full jack up rig design and build.”

European oil & gas

Fluidtech Engineering LLC Fluidtech Engineering LLC, located in Dubai, UAE, was established to offer pump packages and related services to the oil and gas, marine, petro-chemical and power generation markets, for both new builds and rental. It is the authorised dealer, in the GCC Region for, Jetech (US) and Pratissoli (Italy).

Its UHP, up to 2750 bar, is used for removal of paint and rust on rigs and tanks. With pressures from 1000 to 1400 bar, its pumps are used for heat exchanger, drill tubes and underwater cleaning.

Ocean Oilfield amwajgroup.com

Services Offshore services

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service Suspended

StS gruppen is one of the top providers of insulation, scaffolding, and surface treatment (ISS) services in Norway and offers a comprehensive range of services related to maintenance and modification.

Established in 1972 the business was founded by a group of Norwegian entrepreneurs, specialising primarily in scaffolding. “Those scaffolding interests grew quite rapidly, and by 1977 we had our first offshore assignment on Statfjord, an enormous oil and gas field covering 580 km2, and a project at Ekofisk, which followed,” says business development manager Bjørn Hartveit.

It was not until a few years later when the company introduced industrial rope access that it was truly granted its position as a pioneer in the Norwegian continental shelf. “Certain situations were inaccessible by scaffolding, but we recognised that using skills gained from mountaineering that we could combine these two elements to be able to do work offshore in some of the most difficult places to reach,” continues Bjørn. For over 15 years StS gruppen has remained a pioneer in the use of industrial rope access techniques, utilising it as an alternative to traditional scaffolding systems. The company has been a front runner for establishing the Norwegian standard for industrial rope access (SOFT) and has become recognised internationally for its level of expertise and experience.

“Throughout the years our business has gradually expanded with some key, notable concepts. In 1997 we developed the world’s first flexible and mobile reusable habitat system, driven by the needs of our customers,” says

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Bjørn. The basic idea is to utilise the strength and flexibility of scaffolding to create a frame for an airtight lining. Pressurised, the lining becomes an effective shelter from the outside environment. This overcame the issue of the customer of being unable to create a safe working environment whilst working on live installations, allowing the execution of hot work during regular operation of oil and gas related installations and plants. “There was already a similar fixed type of habitat solution, but it took a long time to build. What we did was to take our knowledge from scaffolding, and produce a design that was easy to erect and de-commission.

By pressurizing the habitat with air taken from a blower placed in a non-hazardous zone we are able to create a safe working environment in hazardous zones. A combination of gas detectors and a pressure and temperature transmitter inside the habitat with automatic shut down technology provides additional safety,” he adds.

Later in 2002 the business expanded its range of services to include surface treatment and insulation following the acquisition of Teknisk Isolering and KSK Korrosjon. This led to the company receiving a contract in 2003, operating as a one-stop supplier of insulation, scaffolding and surface treatment services at all Oseberg platforms, as well as at Troll B and C, Brage, Njord A and B and Grane. “It was around 2006 that we began to increase our knowledge in the ISS segment, where we saw that there was a missing education in Norway to be trained in the field of insulation, scaffolding and surface protection. Subsequently, we developed a co-operation with universities and schools in Norway to increase the knowledge and ensure

PROFILE

that there was a sufficient education in this segment,” points out Bjørn.

Historically the business has maintained a high presence on the Norwegian continental shelf, however in recent years that has lessened.

“Whilst much of our work is focused on the North Sea, we are looking to promote our habitat solution, expanding worldwide. We have already established a representative in Malaysia and we are working on other parts of the world, where other oil and gas installations can benefit from reduced down time, and increased safety,” says Bjørn. Having secured the base structure for growth within Aberdeen, the company has set the foundations for ongoing opportunities, additionally tapping into the UK market through a business subsidiary in Middlesborough.

Looking towards the future, StS gruppen is ready to re-establish its interests in offshore Norway, focusing on joint services, as well as targeting on-shore installations. Projects such as that on the Mongstad refinery in Norway has given the business the possibility to secure a wider

range of clients to work with. Whilst the market is shrinking, and the size of the business is reducing, a focus is placed on maintaining relationships with current projects, as well as finding new customers and contracts, as Bjørn explains: “We need to take every possibility within our core services to find new clients and new possibilities. Competition in the market is strong, and we need to be clever and focus on our strengths to take the most out of possibilities there.”

Looking to give the best solution for customers, the business views itself as a problem solver, as Bjørn concludes: “The focus is how we can help our clients in the best possible way, and we build that on a fundamental strength in health, environment and safety. Quality is very important, as well as price, but when it comes to client’s requests, through flexibility we aim to be ahead of competitors, finding the newest solutions.”

Operating from a strong core of expertise, the structure of the business holds it in good stead to lead into the future, as it continues to have a positive impact on its clients daily operations.

European oil & gas

StS gruppen

In 1997 we developed the world’s first flexible and mobile reusable habitat system, driven by the needs of our customers StS gruppen stsgruppen.com

Services Insulation, scaffolding, surface treatment

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precision Optimum

available stocks, technical expertise in all areas of steel plate manufacture and use, logistics, transport and shipping expertise to efficiently move steel anywhere in the world and financial strength from 125 years of successful operations.

Servicing industry throughout the world with an enhanced stock of high quality pressure vessel plate, an extended range HIC products was recently added to its portfolio of carbon steels and further development of its wide area stainless duplex and super duplex steels up to 100mm thicknesses. Furthermore, the company makes use of the steel processing capacity at the UK sites to fulfil demand for plate and profiled steel within other sectors for structural engineering, storage tank, bridge building and renewable energy industries.

With Brown family members still actively involved in the business, the company has become one of the world’s leading specialist steel plate distributors, processors and traders of

Celebrating its 125th year

in operation in 2014, Brown McFarlane has witnessed impressive growth since Albert Richard Brown and his son, Edward, founded it in 1889. The company has progressed from its base in Glasgow to developing a global presence with offices and facilities opening across the UK, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Belgium and Brazil. However, it was when shipbuilding and manufacturing began to decline in Glasgow that the company began to diversify with value added services, such as profile cutting services, in the 1980s. Committed to continual machinery upgrades to ensure high quality products, Brown McFarlane installed its first state-of-the-art plasma machine in 2009 and modernised its UK Stoke-on-Trent facility in 2010. This led to the ISO 9001 accredited company becoming one of the first steel stockholders in Europe to gain the prestigious ISO 14001 Environmental Management accreditation.

To further strengthen its foothold in Europe, Brown McFarlane opened a new plate storage and distribution facility in the port of Antwerp in 2011; meanwhile, to expand its processing capabilities, the firm installed a second highdefinition plasma cutting machine in 2012 and invested £250,000 in Messer Plasma cutting equipment in 2014. Today the company has offices and facilities in the UK, and Belgium and Brazil with a developed supply chain in Singapore, and United Arab Emirates, more than 25,000 tonnes of highly specified steel plates in

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high quality carbon, alloy, stainless steel, duplex steel and super duplex steel plate. Focused on supplying highly specified, quality steel plate products, it has one of the most diverse stock ranges in the world, this, alongside its expert sales team, ensures Brown McFarlane remains unchallenged in its core market sectors: offshore, oil and gas, energy, mining and quarrying and general engineering.

“With our accreditations and certifications (including from Rolls Royce) as well as our ability to supply diverse components, from innovative rig components to the managed project supply of ready-to-assemble tank farm shell kits, there is no aspect of on and offshore heavy engineering components that we are unfamiliar with,” says Tim. “On top of this, as part of our profiling services we often reduce the welding and design requirements of multiple parts as we can make weird and wonderful shapes through high quality precision cutting.

For example, if a company requires drilling services, we can take a 35 hour drill job down to an hour and-a-half; this saves the company a weeks worth of work and can boost their

PROFILE

capacity by up to 17 per cent, just by contracting some of the more time consuming jobs to us.”

Unique in the market due to the skills and experience of its staff in the design department, Brown McFarlane merges its ability to turn innovative ideas into real products with its cutting edge CAD department, which further optimises products to save customers time and money. As demand grows for highly corrosive resistant steels in corrosive environments such as offshore where reliability and longevity are vital, the company holds stock of super duplex stainless steel plates in S32750 and S32760. In comparison to other stainless steel products, the super duplex products not only offer high corrosion resistance, but also resistance to stress corrosion cracking and high yield strength and tensile strength. Used extensively for offshore oil and gas applications, super duplex steel can

Brown McFarlane International

be found in risers, process vessels, flow lines, separators, coolers, process piping and manifolds.

Despite its strong reputation as a leader in stainless and high grade carbon steel supply, Tim notes that the company continues to develop its services to retain its competitive edge: “Our investment in profiling equipment at our Stoke site will exceed £3 million this year, with the addition of skew head plasma cutting, which will give our customers further design and fabrication options as a matter of routine. Plans are also in hand for a further £1 million investment in equipment later in the year to reduce our supply promise of any component anywhere in the world within nine days even further.

“Meanwhile, trading operations continue to grow in the far and Middle East and we anticipate further growth in stocks and product ranges, particularly stainless steels as we work with our customers to further develop stocks of wide area stainless steels at increasing thickness as well as our world-leading HIC products,” he concludes.

European oil & gas

In comparison to other stainless steel products, the super duplex products not only offer high corrosion resistance, but also resistance to stress corrosion cracking and high yield strength and tensile strength

Brown McFarlane International brownmac.com

Services Specialists in High Grade Steel Plate and Profile Supply

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A clear

vision

Thermtech AS

Above The TCC46E, stationary, 4 to 6 metric ton per hour, electrical motor Below TCC34E in Kazakhstan x2 Top right TCC46E mobile Bottom right Stationary, 3 to 4 metric ton per hour, diesel engine in Turkmenistan

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was founded with the vision to become the market leader in the treatment of the drilling waste by offering a new, clean and effective technology for the treatment of the cuttings, both from WBM (Water Based Mud) and from OBM (Oil Based Mud). Today Thermtech can claim more than 15 successful years in operation and has enjoyed steady growth with clients all over the world.

Its large global footprint allows Thermtech AS to understand the needs of clients operating in a host of varied markets, each with a unique set of practices. “Our technology complies with the

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strict environmental requirements of the oil and gas industry and the objective of the technology is to drastically reduce the content of organic carbon in the solids. We provide the solution that helps the oil companies to comply with the most stringent environmental regulations,� says sales and marketing director, Rocco Valentinetti.

Unlike other thermal technologies, which use high temperatures to destroy hydrocarboncontaminated material, the Thermtech TCC units (Thermomechanical Cuttings Cleaner - an advanced thermal desorption technology) convert kinetic energy into thermal energy by generating friction and heat within the drill waste itself. The process has the added benefit of being able to recover the oil from the drilling waste.

The most remarkable feature of the TCC is that it can reduce the level of the TOC (Total Organic Carbon) in the recovered solids down to 0.014 per cent in weight, without burning and without gas emissions. Speaking to European Oil and Gas magazine in April 2014, Rocco explained: “Because the waste is not burned, consequently there are no gas emissions and there is no risk of explosion. While the input is waste, the output is represented by re-usable elements. This is not recycling; it is re-use and this is one-step higher then recycling. The oil and water that were in the waste are separated and can be reused in the drilling fluids, while the solids are so clean that they can be reclassified

PROFILE

as building material or thrown away if the operator prefers because they are inert and free of pollution.”

Through continuous development of its TCC technology Thermtech is able to deliver a highly adaptable product, which can be deployed across a spectrum of geographic locations encompassing a host of requirements.

This has proven to be a significant advantage in adapting to the uncertain market caused by the current low oil price. Presently the Middle East is increasingly becoming a key geographical area for the Thermtech TCC. “The most commercially interesting area in which to do business at present is the Middle East, because the cost of production per barrel is lower than anywhere else in the world. The company used to go where there were higher investments in drilling, now we are focusing in the areas with lower production costs,” Rocco explains. “The challenge at present is to survive and to choose the right geographical markets in which to operate. It is also important to present something different to clients old and new, a technology

that is more efficient, cheaper and more effective.

There are opportunities in different areas such as Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE and so on. Authorities over the past three to four years have shown that they want the drilling waste to be treated rather than disposed of, so the work is also to process the old waste as well as the new waste and the interest for the TCC technology among local contractors is growing.”

As Thermtech looks to the rest of 2015 and beyond, it will focus on existing clients as well as growing opportunities in newer markets. The adaptability of TCC will be vital in ensuring that the company is able to meet the needs of its customers and is exemplified by the fact that it can be provided both for WBM cuttings and OBM cuttings, i.e. with or without the option to recover the oil. Clients looking for equipment that do not include the recovery option can benefit from a cheaper and more compact solution that offers the same efficiency with the recovery of precious and pure water.

European oil & gas

Thermtech

Thermtech AS thermtech.no

Supply Thermal desorption technology and engineering

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PROFILE

Cummins Middle East

force A driving

In 1919 Clessie Lyle Cummins received backing from banker William G. Irwin and they founded the Cummins Engine Company in Columbus Indiana, being the first to take advantage of diesel technology developed at the end of the nineteenth century. Today the leading Fortune 500 company operates across the world, employs 55,000 people and last year generated $18.2 billion in revenue designing, manufacturing, selling and servicing diesel engines and related technologies. Cummins Middle East was the first fully owned distributor of the company and today has a large network of independent, company owned, joint venture distributors and dealers throughout a territory that spans 14 countries. Since managing director, Rachid Ouenniche last spoke to European Oil and Gas last year, the company has continued to strengthen its presence in the oil and gas, power generation and defence industries, won a number of major contracts within the region and is working closely with universities to ensure a consistent flow of highly skilled employees, who are critical to the future growth and success of Cummins in the area.

In the oil and gas industry the company’s main products are power drilling modules, in particular its 50 litre diesel engines that as Rachid highlights: “Have been proven as bestin-class for many years.” He explains: “Drilling products are gaining more acceptance from our customers who like their superior performance.

Many of our customers have also recognised the strength of our products in well servicing where we are gaining market share. There

also continues to be a need for camp power and our generators are very popular in such applications.” Clearly, Cummins is becoming a powerful and trusted brand in the Middle East where reliable performance in drilling applications is turning customers back towards the company for other needs. A customer portfolio of global players including Baker Hughes, Schlumberger and Lamprell Energy, plus a number of regional companies across Qatar, UAE, Kuwait and Oman bolsters its reputation within the oil and gas industry. Other industries that Cummins Middle East serves are: defence, marine, truck, bus, RV, rail, mining, construction and agriculture.

Elsewhere, recent major contracts awarded to Cummins Middle East have greatly contributed towards the company’s growth and establishment in the region. It has provided standby power systems to some major hospitals throughout the Middle East, has generators being used for primary power at Qatar stadium, and has projects to provide power to two airports in Saudi Arabia. These projects involve a large and dedicated engineering team working closely with consultants and contractors to design, install and commission the large power stations needed for the such projects and work could take up to two years as it provides continual support for clients in the installation of these critical applications.

In the face of the recent dip in oil prices the Middle Eastern oil and gas industry may have experienced a slight reduction in activity over the past year, but Cummins Middle East remains unconcerned. Rachid explains: “The market is European oil & gas

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PROFILE

Cummins Middle East

Cummins is becoming a powerful and trusted brand in the Middle East where reliable performance in drilling applications is turning customers back towards the company for other needs still strong. We see some softening in oil and gas spending on the upstream side of the business and governments in the Gulf Region are also re-assessing infrastructure project spending, particularly for projects that seem to be of a discretionary nature. But with the significant reserves that both Saudi and UAE governments have, most significant projects are still on track.” With a standing across a broad variety of industries in the region, plus plans to expand into a new market in telecoms, the state of the company looks strong.

Part of the company’s strength comes from the huge distribution and support network provided by the global Cummins company. “We believe that we have the best distribution network in the industry, and that our presence close to most of our customers gives us a competitive advantage,” emphasises Rachid. However, another part of the company’s success comes from Cummins Middles East’s approach to its people. Rachid discusses this, saying: “Our employees are dedicated, innovative, and agile which gives us a strong advantage in the market place.” This focus on people is part of the company’s current growth strategy, when European Oil and Gas last featured the company Rachid saw growth coming from working with universities to gain the right skilled employment and aimed to be a key destination for employment. A year on the company has collaborated with four universities in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Afghanistan, and looks to add another in Lebanon this year. “This programme has now become very popular at the universities we collaborate with and we are able to get the best students and give them opportunities to grow their careers with Cummins.

“One of the areas of focus for our business in the region is to increase the representation of women in the workplace. Over the past few years we’ve had 40 interns spend three months

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during the summer, and about half of them are now employed with Cummins Middle East,” adds Rachid. By ensuring this commitment to providing opportunities to people, the company will have the foundations upon which to grow and expand in the Middle East, and will look set to achieve its goal to be consistently best-in-class in service and support in the region.

Cummins Middle East cummins.com

Services Power supply

PROFILE

quartzelec

EM’Powering the oil, gas and marine markets Quartzelec’s workforce delivers its competitive edge

Electrical machines feature prominently in almost every industrial sector around the globe; and are the driving force behind these businesses. The oil & gas and marine sectors are no exception; simply look at any aspect of any business operating in one of these areas and there will be a bespoke electrical motor or generator at the centre of every critical capability, process or service.

The rating and cost of these machines varies significantly in line with the machines duty, as does the diversity and number of companies that design and build them. At one end of the spectrum there are the relatively ‘inexpensive’ low voltage motors that are often regarded as ‘disposable / replacement’ items when faults occur; supplied to a set price point and with a given life expectancy. However, transition into the high voltage sector and it becomes a different matter. Here a much smaller number of specialist global manufacturers are involved. Typically costing tens or more commonly hundreds of thousands of pounds to purchase, these large motors are inevitably in constant operation and due to constant moving parts are subject to progressive wear. Machines typically rated at 3.3kV and above would have specific and ongoing monitoring and maintenance to keep them operational.

While a number of OEM equipment providers offer ‘through life’ support, often at a price, there are some instances where the original manufacturer is no longer in

operation or they no longer support particular categories of equipment. This has resulted in the establishment of specialist companies like Quartzelec, a leading international and independent electrical engineering group that provides a comprehensive range of support services for rotating electrical machines. Created in 2009, through a management buy-out, and with a turnover now approaching £60 million, the company can trace its lineage back over 80 years. Its impressive heritage includes several of the great names in electrical design and fabrication including British Thomson Houston (BTH), AEI, GEC Machines, GEC Alsthom Large Machines, ALSTOM and Cegelec.

With a highly skilled, experienced and knowledgeable workforce, Quartzelec has multiple UK and overseas locations, however, the company’s HQ and flagship workshop is located in new, purpose built facilities in Rugby from where it can manage the repair, overhaul and maintenance of rotating electrical equipment. In addition to these extensive workshop facilities, the team also has access to an extensive library of design drawings and a full design department which means it can manufacture strategic replacement parts or reverse engineer complete machines (electrical and mechanically interchangeable) to meet growing customer requirements.

With a customer base that’s spread throughout the marine and oil & gas industries, a core Quartzelec strength is in having highly European oil & gas

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PROFILE

experienced teams located close to key operations. Aberdeen is a perfect example and is playing a key part in the company’s success and the drive it has for expansion today.

“Our engineers and electricians undertake general maintenance, repair and installation work on an array of vessels, rigs and land based facilities across the region,” explained Jamie Burns, the recently appointed general manager for the Aberdeen operation.

“Quartzelec has been the supplier of choice to many businesses within the oil & gas and marine sectors for many years, working on high voltage generation on platforms in the North Sea and the vessels that support them, and we have our own large repair facility situated at the harbour side.

“For many years we’ve been used as a main support channel, keeping high voltage machines up and running, but without much forward planning. When a machine ‘broke down’ we would mobilise a team and head straight out to site. Now we increasingly undertake more pro-active project based work and have invested time and money into people and equipment to become a better solutions provider – effectively empowering our customers to take more control of their requirements when it comes to electrical machines. Planned maintenance is becoming increasingly important so in response to customers’ requests, we’ve developed a full condition monitoring package - Lifeview®; through our Swiss based business Quartzteq. We now offer mobile and fixed monitoring solutions and can subject equipment to processes such as partial discharge checks and vibration analysis, with the aim of preventing breakdowns. This in turn means less downtime for our customers and better management of overall costs.”

Operating in such a niche market, ensuring the right people, with the right skills set and accreditation is vital, so Quartzelec has focused on recruiting and training. Over the past few months, five additional technicians have been added to Aberdeen’s existing complement of 50 and the search is on to increase this further over coming months. There are also plans to establish operations in both Leith and Glasgow to extend capabilities and provide a complete electrical offering.

“Within the marine business, we’re highly regarded as one of the best at what we do,” Jamie continued, and a recent project exemplifies this. “We typically perform general ‘day-to-day’

maintenance on an array of electrical switchgear and switchboards, breakers and dynamic positioning and communications systems right through to complete overhauls and retrofits on anything electrical on a vessel which could involve dry dock services and even sea trials – but when the need arises we pull out all the stops. In this instance engine fire damage to a vessel at sea resulted in extensive damage to cable runs and we were contracted in to ensure it was out of charter for the shortest amount of time possible. We operated a seven-man team, around the clock, to strip back the damaged cables to the point of origin and replace them to the specification standard and in a time scale that suited the customer.”

It’s this same level of dedication that’s seen Quartzelec engineers sent all over the world to carry out marine and oil & gas tasks, ranging from investigative work to entire studies and delivering projects. There is little doubt in the company’s ability to perform and trusted partners like ATB Laurence Scott and Brook Crompton for whom Quartzelec are authorised repairers further underpin this.

“It is our workforce that provides our biggest competitive edge,” concludes Jamie. “Customer satisfaction has been at the heart of everything we do and reputation and word of mouth are fundamental. The marine and oil & gas markets are relatively small, close knit communities, so we have to continually provide exemplary customer service; continually improve and ensure the job is done to the best standard and as fast and efficiently as possible – backed up by strong project management.”

So when it comes to replacing damaged cables and ‘disposable’ motors right through to the installation, service and repair of bespoke high value, high voltage electrical motors and generators Quartzelec has the drive, determination and skills to deliver a practical and cost effective solution - empowering the oil & gas and the marine sectors and providing the service and support they demand.

quartzelec

With a customer base that’s spread throughout the marine and oil & gas industries, a core Quartzelec strength is in having highly experienced teams located close to key operations

For more information on the maintenance, repair and service of electrical motors and generators for the oil & gas and marine sectors contact Jamie Burns, Quartzelec’s

Quartzelec

General Manager in Aberdeen on 44 (0)1224 593008

quartzelec.com

or email Jamie.Burns@Quartzelec.com. For general information on the services available from Quartzelec,

Services

please call 44 (0) 1788 512512

Electrical engineering

or email Jody.Townsend@Quartzelec.com

European oil & gas

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partner A secure

Below Leif Larsson, CEO of Scandinavian Tank Storage

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European oil & gas

Founded in 1993, Scandinavian Tank Storage (STS) is Sweden’s largest independent storage company offering storage in both caverns and tanks. Through its six international ports, including a 600,000 m3 crude storage facility in Gothenburg, STS is able to offer flexible and innovative 24-hour solutions to its clients’ storage needs. Its flexibility allows STS to store a range of products and quantities across its facilities located in Arendal, Gothenburg, Malmö, Karlshamn, Norrköping and Gävle.

Furthermore through its subsidiary company, Atlantic Tank Storage (ATS), STS is able to offer the storage of clean products in Iceland at its Helguvik, Hvalfjordur – Litli Sandur and Hvalfjordur – Midsandur facilities.

Through both acquisitions and long-term disposition agreements STS is able to offer large storage capacity for a host of products at competitive prices. Within Sweden and Norway for example, it offers storage solutions for bitumen, fuel oil, vacuum gas oil (VGO), gas oil, kerosene, jet A1, naphtha, gasoline and crude oil. Its Icelandic operation on the other hand encompasses 250,000 cubic metres of storage and is focused on clean products such as gas oil, kerosene, jet A1, naphtha and gasoline. “Originally STS was operated as transit storage company,” explains CEO, Leif Larsson. “As time went on we changed the overall strategy so that today we have a good mix of regular deliveries. While some of our business is still in transit storage, we also have europeanoilandgas.co.uk

distribution, arbitrage and strategic storage.”

Throughout it history STS has worked with both clients and local authorities to ensure that it is able to deliver the right solutions for its customers’ needs. On the 1st January 2015 the EU’s sulphur directive came into force requiring all vessels within the sulphur Emission Control Area (SECA), which includes the North Sea, Baltic Sea and English Channel, to use lowsulphur marine diesel. According to the new regulations the maximum permitted amount of sulphur in marine fuel is now as low as 0.1 per cent by weight. To assist vessel operators to bunker in the area Copenhagen Malmö Port (CMP) and STS have jointly invested in the port of Malmö to create a dedicated bunkering quay with an associated terminal facility. Furthermore, Statoil will act as the fuel supplier for the new venture. “Malmö is strategically located for this type of activity, since more than 40,000 vessels a year pass through Öresund. We are naturally delighted that Statoil has chosen Malmö and ourselves as the strategic location and partner for fuel distribution,” Leif says.

Scandinavian Tank Storage places great importance on undertaking all of its operations in a safe and sustainable manner, while ensuring that its facilities are equally environmentally responsible. The conditions through which STS governs its operations are determined through a permit granting system in accordance with current legislation. Further to this the company continuously adapts its working methods in

PROFILE

Scandinavian Tank Storage

a broad range of flexible storage solutions and a dedicated focus on environmentally responsible and sustainable operation the company has earned a trusted reputation among its clients.

These include the major operators and trade houses within the oil and gas industry and beyond. As the company continues to grow it will reply on its dedicated workforce to enable it to seek new opportunities throughout Europe, as Leif concludes: “We are a well known company in the market and we have a good reputation, because our staff are dedicated and very professional and have a personal attitude to the market. Traders and businesses like to do business with STS, because we take a personal approach where we care about customers and take care of them. Within the coming year we will do a lot of upgrading in our current terminals and over the next two to three years we will look at further expansion through the acquisition of new companies and terminals in Sweden and its neighbouring countries.”

Its flexibility allows STS to store a range of products and quantities across its facilities located in Arendal, Gothenburg, Malmö, Karlshamn, Norrköping and Gävle

Scandinavian Tank Storage AB scandinaviantankstorage.com

Services Independent tank storage

tandem with the latest findings within the environmental sciences. As such STS maintains a philosophy of corporate responsibility and a holistic view encompassing best practice, environmentally responsibility and basic trust between all parties, which represents one of the company’s core values.

This dedication to responsible operation was recognised in 2013 when STS was awarded the prestigious Gothenburg environmental award, which was presented at the annual Energy Port Day. Each year the Port of Gothenburg hands out the Energy Port’s environmental award, with STS being awarded the accolade, among other things, because of its ability to work proactively with improvements based on customer needs.

“It is one of the company’s main focuses to be environmentally responsible and to comply with all the rules and regulations,” Leif elaborates. “In Sweden as well as the other Nordic countries, there are very strict environmental regulations and we are at the forefront of those. In Malmö for example we do work that is not yet necessary to comply with regulations as well as some cleaning up of the local area. We also carry out a lot of research to stay ahead of the curve regarding these issues and have regular contact with environmental authorities.”

Presently STS controls a total of around three million cubic metres of storage capacity across Sweden, Norway and Iceland. Through European oil & gas

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PROFILE

Technip India

together Stronger

Operating as a

Below Samik Mukherjee, country head and managing director

100 per cent wholly owned entity of Technip France, Technip brings in strong competency in the field of onshore refining, petrochemical, LNG, fertilisers, oil & gas; offshore process platforms and subsea engineering in India.

Technip Group was founded in 1958 in Paris as an engineering company with a workforce of just 100 people and over the course of a little over 50 years the business has grown into a global company with a workforce totalling 38,000 people across 48 countries in five continents. Today Technip is listed on Euronext Paris (EURONEXT: FR0000131708) and traded in the US on the OTCQX marketplace (OTCQX: TKPPY). Throughout its history Technip has demonstrated a keen ability to anticipate and adapt to the needs of its clients as well as the changing demands of the energy market.

Within India the company has a strong presence and offers a wide spectrum of services from licensing, PMC services, FEED, basic engineering to full EPC projects covering everything from ‘concept to commissioning.’

These activities are supported by a broad portfolio of technologies that were further strengthened by Technip Group’s acquisition of Global Industries Ltd. and Stone & Webster Process Technologies during 2011 and 2012 respectively, giving Technip India a broad base within the energy market.

Technip India recently took the decision to merge all of its existing entities in India under One Technip umbrella, which was successfully completed in April 2014. “Technip’s different entities in India underwent a corporate restructuring by way of a court approved merger to become one legal entity as Technip India. In a further step, the merged entity Technip India Limited moved its country management headquarters to Mumbai and it remains a wholly owned subsidiary of Technip France SAS. The aim of the merger was to provide a consistent value proposition to all our customers/stakeholders in India as One Technip, enhance the collaboration between Technip India and other Technip group entities and to leverage the synergies of combined operations of three centres – Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. Today Technip India has a 3200 strong workforce, based across three locations in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, led by a single country management team,” explains country head and managing director, Samik Mukherjee.

“This integration has helped each operating centre to enhance their capabilities with the support of the other centres, thus resulting into increased growth in terms of business volume/portfolio and more opportunities for all employees of Technip India,” he continues.

“There are three aspects of this integration – legal, people and process. We have completed the legal European oil & gas

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Technip India

integration part but people and process integration are an on-going process. Integration of multiple entities to One Technip reaffirms Technip Group's strong commitment for the growing domestic market to deliver challenging and exciting projects for the energy industry in India.”

Technip India has built a strong reputation for delivering first-class service and as such has developed an equally impressive client base, including highly regarded industry players such as Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL); Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC); Reliance Industries Limited; Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited (IPCL); Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL); GAIL (India) Limited; Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited; EIL; Kochi Refineries Limited; Larsen & Toubro Limited (L&T); Gujarat State Fertilizer and Chemicals Limited; JBF Industry; Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL); Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Limited and National Fertilizers Limited.

“Our structural alignment will help us to deliver tailor-made service to our respective clients with a focus on value added services and extended product portfolio in the local and international market,” says Samik. “Currently in addition to domestic EPC projects and engineering services for the Technip Group, we are concentrating on the high value added services (for both domestic customers/Group) by entering the areas of conceptual studies/feasibility reports/FEED (front end engineering)/procurement services/ project management Consultancy (PMC).”

Amongst its recently completed projects Technip India can count a number of highly successful and widely publicised operations, including the notable installation of the Heera Redevelopment (HRD) process platform for Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC).

“The HRD installation was completed using our proprietary Unideck integrated topside floatover installation system for the first time in the Indian waters,” Samik explains. “The unique feature of this installation method is that it performs the integrated production deck (topsides) installation in a single operation, thus saving installation time and lowering risks compared to some other traditional methodologies of multiple lifts of smaller modules. The HRD platform will help in increasing field exploration and development activities, thus improving domestic hydrocarbon production.”

Furthermore, Technip India is further demonstrating its expertise through highly

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technical projects for Reliance and JBF Petrochemicals. “We are proud to be associated with setting up an ethylene gas cracker for Reliance Jamnagar in India. In terms of size and complexity, this is truly the biggest and world class Gas Cracker Project using Refinery Off Gasses as the main feed. The scope of work includes a license for steam cracking, supply of basic engineering package and engineering and procurement services. The ROGC plant will utilise Technip’s ethylene technology, including its proprietary SMK furnaces technology, one of the major cornerstones of the Technip's ethylene know-how. The products from this plant will be utilised as feedstock for the new downstream petrochemical plants,” Samik reveals.

“We are also working with JBF Petrochemicals, a wholly–owned subsidiary of JBF Industries Ltd for 1.25 million tons per year latest-generation purified terephthalic acid (PTA) unit, to be located in the Special Economic Zone in Mangalore, India,” he continues. “PTA is the primary feedstock for polyesters used in textiles and packaging. The contract covers the basic engineering, front-end engineering design, detailed engineering and procurement services for the ISBL (inside battery limit) and the OSBL (outside battery limit) of the unit. The scope of work also includes supply of materials and construction management services for the ISBL. The plant will feature BP’s leading-edge proprietary PTA technology.”

Currently, under the leadership of the stable India Government, the country is at the inflection point to see the transformation of energy sector, driven by favourable policy framework, focus on deep water development, operational excellence in manufacturing to reduce energy consumption and enhanced skill-sets to achieve scalability and pace for execution of mega-projects. Technip India relies on its highly skilled personnel to steer the company further in the right direction, as Samik concludes: “Our strengths are our people – a key pillar for our success. Recently, Technip in India has achieved the exclusive Top Employers Asia Pacific 2015 certification as a mark of its dedication to the development of the people.

Technip Group has also been certified as one of the first five companies in the world as a Global Top Employer 2015. Our global Top Employer title combined with the certification at country and regional level demonstrates the quality and consistency of the company’s human resources policies and practices across the group’s worldwide network in 48 countries.”

Kirloskar Pneumatic Co Ltd Kirloskar Pneumatic Co Ltd [KPCL] has over 25 years of experience in providing refrigeration and gas compression systems and has been associated with Technip for over ten years as a major supplier.

Presently KPCL is involved in the execution of a refrigeration package for gas fields of Vashishta & S1 in the Krishna Godavari (KG) offshore basin of M/s Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Onshore terminal. [Application: Hydrocarbon Gas Dew point Reduction – HCDP project. 1133 kW Capacity. Package comprising of screw compressor, air cooled condensor, receiver chiller etc.]

The complete LSTK contract is done by Technip India.

Pacific Refractories Pacific Refractories Ltd shares a warm business relationship with Technip India. It began as a vendor to Technip in 2006 and now has become a keypartner in their success stories.

It has executed numerous heater projects for Technip, where its role has been engineering, supply, application services and pre-commissioning.

It is a premium quality refractory manufacturer with multiple manufacturing facilities in India with a solid track record in petroleum, petrochemical, fertilizer, ferrous, nonferrous and cement industries.

Technip India technip.com

Services Project management, engineering and construction

PROFILE

Large Diameter Drilling

success Foundations for

European

Oil and Gas Magazine last featured the Acteon Group company, Large Diameter Drilling Ltd (LDD) back in 2008 when the company was just a year old. At the time the company had experienced extraordinary growth down to focused marketing and the winning of a large contract for VAALCO Energy Inc carrying out drill and grouted pile installations in the Ebouri field, offshore from Gabon. Since then the company has grown from strength to strength to become a world leader in reverse circulation drilling, achieving repeat custom and winning large contracts in a number of industries including the renewable energy sector.

Yet, despite a truly worldwide presence LDD is very keen to stay true to its roots in Cornwall looking to create a number of well paid, highly skilled jobs for the local economy and once again put the area back on the map as a centre of industry excellence.

The company specialises in complete marine and subsea foundation installation. It prides itself on being able to deliver world-class design,

engineering, building and operation of pileinstallation and drilling equipment any size, any geology, anywhere. This promise to deliver its service anywhere can be attributed to the team of highly skilled engineers and extensive experience within the industry that the company has. Testaments to this experience are the recent development of the world’s largest and most powerful reverse circulation drill, the LD5000, and its StabFrame installation, an innovative sub-sea piling frame that ensures stable driving in unstable underwater conditions. Both of which have been crucial to carrying out major projects across the world.

In 2011, LDD won a major contract to supply its services to the Gwynt Y Mor Offshore Windfarm Limited (GYMOWL) project that plans to develop a 160 turbine wind farm offshore of North Wales. GYMOWL is made up of RWE npower Renewables, Siemens and Stadtwerke Munchen. The project marked a significant point in the company’s development as its first renewables contract, and allowed European oil & gas

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PROFILE

the Cornwall based team to showcase its talent in design and engineering, developing the LD5000 drill. The drill is the world’s largest and most powerful reverse circulation drill and has the ability to increase its drilling diameter to eight metres, an engineering feat that LDD is particularly proud of. As a result of this contract, in late 2011, the company was awarded the Green Energy Award for the Best Business Innovation in the South West. Aside from its work within the renewables industry, the judges were impressed by the high-end engineering and design skills, plus the scalability and export potential that can have a positive impact on the local economy. In April 2014 LDD successfully completed its installation of all 160 turbine foundations and looks forward to being able to use the, now proven, LD5000 in future projects.

As featured before, LDD’s first major contract was awarded by VAALCO and after successfully proving its capabilities, services and close attention to safety on this project the company was appointed to provide further jacket foundation installation in 2014. The new Etame Marin Block project based offshore of Gabon requires LDD to help install foundations for four 140 metre piles by providing its drilling, grouting, lifting and handling services.

Where the company shines is in its complete installation service, meaning that its customer only needs one contract for the foundation installation reducing risk and cost. The repeat custom represented a significant point in the company’s development by reinforcing its position as the world leader in the industry. The project was completed in October last year safely and on schedule and the company was once again commended for its services, particularly its attention to safety.

The exceptional growth rewarded to LDD has been a result of its commitment to innovation and development of new technology. Over the

Large Diameter Drilling

last few years this development has begun to revolutionise drilling productivity and enhanced the company’s own specialist services, which are crucial factors to reducing the costs for future projects. It is a development that will be critical to its aims of increasing the distance it has ahead of its competitors. However, whilst becoming a world leader with a growing global footprint, LDD is keen to develop itself as a local company too. Part funded by the EDRT programme, a new state-of-the-art £3.3 million company headquarters, incorporating both office and workshop space, is currently being built at Tolvaddon Energy Park in Cornwall. Due to be finished in April of this year, the improved facilities will contribute towards the company’s plans over the next five years to expand and create more well paid, highly skilled jobs for the local economy in Cornwall. The future for LDD is very much focused on growth, and continued dedication to innovation and excellent service looks set to reward the company with more major contracts around the world in the coming years. By providing opportunities to an area with a rich source of untapped talent it can grow its highly trained workforce in steps to help ensure this success.

European oil & gas

Where the company shines is in its complete installation service, meaning that its customer only needs one contract for the foundation installation reducing risk and cost

Large Diameter Drilling Ltd (LDD) lddrill.co.uk

Services Offshore drilling and foundation installation

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Breaking

waves The Singapore

Below Kjell Gauksheim, Nordic Maritime’s executive director

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European oil & gas

based ship owner and management company, Nordic Maritime, has since 1999 provided a complete range of marine seismic and offshore services to customers globally. Led by a team of experienced maritime, offshore and seismic professionals, over the past 15 years the business has built a reputation of operational excellence and developed a network of international clients that include national and listed oil companies and majors.

Operational and management experience has been gained on a range of specialised craft that includes seismic survey vessels, chase boats, PSV/ AHTS vessels, crew boats, diving support vessels and offshore accommodation and construction vessels. It is through that experience that its technical and management teams are able to guarantee the very best service to its customers, meeting individual shipping needs. Throughout the company’s history it has actively provided a number of services including in-house engineering and design, project management for new builds, conversions and repair, general vessel inspections and audits and preparation of repair and dry-docking specifications and supervision.

Today the company’s headquarters are located in Singapore, with an office in Jakarta, specialising in the operation and management of Indonesian flagged vessels. Offering a complete range of highquality, conventional marine seismic services, these vessels are equipped with onboard processing systems that allow clients to access real time information about the potential of offshore fields.

Using the latest technology in ship to shore communication, access to that crucial real-time information is easily gained, further enabling efficient onshore management of vessels and ensuring ongoing customer satisfaction as well as meeting industrial standards. europeanoilandgas.co.uk

Nordic Maritime is also proud to offer its proprietary fleet of chase boats and supply vessels to support its seismic operation, allowing the company to provide the highest levels of safety standards and efficiency, for both operations and equipment. In 2007, Nordic Maritime was the first marine seismic company to collaborate with the Vietnamese National Oil Company (PVEP), and started a very ambitious project, which included the conversion and the operation of a 2D seismic vessel over a two-year contract period. Nordic Maritime was also requested to include a nationalisation plan and to train all local engineers through an extensive on-the-job course that was specifically designed for the project. Successfully completed in December 2010, the Binh Minh 02 today continues to operate in Vietnamese waters.

This unique experience gives Nordic Maritime an incomparable advantage when it comes to understanding its clients’ requirements, and sharing its knowledge and experience.

Maintaining a positive and driven outlook, each request is considered as a new opportunity, and as a result, its customers receive a personal approach, that has become a valued part of the offering. With an established network of clients and business associates comprising of oil and gas majors, ship owners and charterers from across the globe, Nordic Maritime has gained an understanding that ensures it is able to adhere to the specialist requirements of its customers, continually meeting such needs in what is a very challenging sector of the oil and gas industry.

During 2014 the business was awarded a contract to provide 2D seismic survey work in Indonesia by MultiClient Geophysical (Pte) Ltd. (MCG), Nordic Maritime’s executive director, Kjell Gauksheim said upon award of the contract: “We are delighted to announce this new contract from MCG just before the end of the 2014 for our vessel, S/V Nordic Bahari.

With our established track record in successfully completing similar projects, our client can be assured of our professionalism and high quality standards in servicing them. We look forward to acquiring more of such seismic surveys contracts in the coming year. ” The survey, which consisted of two parts: a regional long offset program of minimum 1753km offshore Lombok and smaller program of minimum 1014km offshore East Sulawesi, was concluded in just two months.

Furthermore during December 2014 it was announced that the company’s MKIII subsea

PROFILE

serve vessel, Mokul Nordic had been renamed Nordic Prince and awarded a $70 million contract with Noble Energy. The vessel has since started a five-year charter from Haifa, Israel. “We are glad to announce that our vessel, Nordic Prince had arrived at Haifa Port and on-hire for the highly reputable international oil company, Noble Energy,” says Kjell. “This marks a good start to what we believe will be a strong collaboration between Nordic Maritime and Noble Energy. Nordic Prince is now installed with a WROV and ready for the new project.”

Additionally as the business continues to expand, Nordic Maritime is expecting the delivery of Nordic Prince’s sister ship, Nordic Queen during Q3 2015, as well as the arrival of the new build Nordic Barakuda earlier in the year. “The Barakuda will support Nordic’s own seismic operations as a chase/crew vessel, but we will also aim to charter her out as a geophysical survey vessel to third party operators,” Kjell elaborates.

Since the company incorporated over a decade and a half ago, Nordic Maritime has

Nordic Maritime

been offering the highest quality of ship management services, tailored to each client's individual shipping requirements, and looks set to continue doing so throughout 2015.

From fleet technical management to marine operations and HSSEQ, its management system provides procedures, instructions and documentation of all vessel activities in a simple, systematic and well-structured manner that continues to grow in popularity.

In addition, its extensive experience as vessel owners and managers ensures the professional handling of any operational and technical matters that may arise during the ships' voyage, and as such confidence for the business is high as it faces an otherwise challenging year ahead.

European oil & gas

Since the company incorporated over a decade and a half ago, Nordic Maritime has been offering the highest quality of ship management services, tailored to each client's individual shipping requirements, and looks set to continue doing so throughout 2015 Nordic Maritime nordic.com.sg

Services Seismic and offshore services

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Engineering

opportunities Radley Engineering Ltd

was founded in 1972 by brothers John and Thomas Radley in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford. Today, Radley Engineering Ltd employs 255 people, and is one of Europe’s leading specialists in the design, manufacture, fabrication and site installation of high quality stainless steel, carbon steel and exotic materials.

Vision, mission and value proposition: The company’s vision is to be a leading global provider of specialised engineering solutions that will bring value to its clients.

The success of Radley Engineering has been driven by a set of core values: 66 Safety - The safety and health of all employees is the most important value held by the company and will never be compromised.

66 Integrity – The company will behave ethically, honestly and will work together to achieve organisational goals. It will honour its commitments and accept responsibility for its actions.

66 Environment - A commitment to sustainability and to acting in an environmentally friendly way.

66 Teamwork – it works to inspire, support and assist each other’s efforts towards individual and shared goals.

66 Respect – It treats individuals with respect and sensitivity and values their contribution.

66 Performance – It is dedicated to satisfying its customers’ needs and exceeding their expectations.

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Greg Conaty, Technical Director, outlines the companies’ value proposition to their clients: “At Radley’s we create value for our clients by playing a key role in transforming ideas and inventions into innovations that, by definition, create value for all our customers and supply chain partners. Our market sectors include Oil & Gas, Mechanical, Pharmaceutical, Bio Pharma, Power Generation and Special Architectural Projects.”

Greg goes on to outline the Radley Engineering Ltd mission statement: 66 To safely and consistently deliver specialised engineering solutions for its targeted market sectors.

66 To deliver a high quality, comprehensive, professional service and take full responsibility for the realisation of customers’ investment plans.

66 It will deliver operational excellence in every corner of the organisation and meet or exceed its commitment to the communities it serves.

66 It is dedicated to creating an atmosphere of optimism, teamwork, creativity, resourcefulness and its dealings with everyone will be conducted in an open and ethical manner.

66 All of its long-term strategies and short term actions will be moulded by a set of core values that are shared by each and every employee.

Site Facility: The state-of-the-art site facility, in Dungarvan, is set against the backdrop of the Comeragh Mountains on a ten-acre site that consists of:

PROFILE

radley engineering

66 Carbon Steel Pipework Fabrication Dedicated 2,000 Sq. Metre workshop c/w 4 overhead gantries.

66 Stainless Steel Pipework Fabrication Dedicated 1,400 Sq. Metre segregated compound for pipe & fittings.

66 High Purity Pipework facility – Dedicated 2,000 Sq. Metre Cleanroom to ISO Class 10/1000/10,000 servicing the pharma, bio pharma and medical market sectors.

Radley’s purpose built facility is also capable of: 66 Welding (Automatic & Manual Processes) 66 Machining 66 Polishing 66 De-Greasing & Cleaning 66 Passivation 66 Shot Blasting & Priming 66 Painting & Powder Coating 66 Heat Treatment 66 NDE 66 Vessel Repair & Refurbishment

Products include: 66 Pressure Vessels 66 Subsea Drilling Risers (Approved/Qualified welding procedures) 66 Storage/Heating/Cooling Tanks 66 Pipework Systems and Installations 66 Heat Exchangers 66 Condensers 66 Reactors 66 Process Columns 66 Modular Design for Skids & Structures

Subsea Drilling Risers: Radley Engineering Ltd continues to invest in new technologies and welding techniques.

This commitment to research and continuous improvement has resulted in Radley Engineering successfully achieving approval for weld procedures for Subsea drilling risers.

Approval of its weld procedures has been granted by some of the largest exploration companies in the world. Greg explains: “We have now secured several subsea welding contracts for 2015. The tubes which are free issued to Radley Engineering by the pipe manufacturer are welded in a tightly monitored and controlled environment. The tube material grades are highly specified chrome martensitic, F22 and 4130, both manufactured to client’s specification and working to extremely high pressures on the seabed. Radley’s are the first

company in Ireland to achieve this welding procedure approval. All weld procedures are completed by our highly qualified and experienced coded welders.”

Radley Engineering Ltd is committed to future investment in new equipment and machinery for the production of the units and hopes to expand its client base in the Oil & Gas market. Existing clients include Phillips 66 / ConocoPhillips, Shell, Statoil and Worley Parsons.

Welding Capabilities & Materials: Radley Engineering Ltd is also one of Europe’s leading specialists in the welding of exotic materials. Its welders are fully trained certified specialist welders in various materials including: 66 Stainless Steel (Austenitic) 66 Carbon Steel 66 Low temperature Carbon Steel 66 Hastelloy alloy (C22 / C276) 66 Aluminium 66 Monel 66 Duplex 66 Super Austenitic Duplex 66 Titanium (Grade 2) 66 Incoloy 66 Cupro Nickel

At Radley’s we create value for our clients by playing a key role in transforming ideas and inventions into innovations that, by definition, create value for all our customers and supply chain partners

Design & Documentation: Radley Engineering is the industry leader in computerised vessel design and modelling using both 2D and 3D applications including Auto Desk Product Design Suite (Inventor and Autocad), Autodesk Plant Design Suite, PV Elite and Finglow. This allows Radley’s to design vessels to ASME VIII, PD 5500, EN13445, European oil & gas

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PROFILE

radley engineering

Special Architectural Projects:

API650 and TEMA standards.

Radley operates a Quality Management System certified by the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) under ISO 9001:2008. Radley’s commitment to quality, inspection documentation and design standards ensure that client’s specification requirements are continuously met in full.

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Radley Engineering is proud to be associated with a number of high profile projects including ‘The Spire of Dublin’, ‘The Heron Tower’ in the heart of London and the Waterford City Suir Cable Stay Bridge. This is a clear indication as to the flexibility of its workforce and its design capabilities.

Greg concludes: “As the company looks to the future, we will continue to maintain our excellent relationships with the existing supply chain from client, EPCM and contractor in our current market sectors. We will forge ahead to develop new relationships within the subsea oil and gas markets as well as the UK nuclear power market where we are talking with EDF. This is an exciting time to be working at Radley Engineering Ltd and with the next generation of Radley’s, now in key positions within the company, the future looks bright.”

Radley Engineering Ltd radleyeng.ie