Vol. 233 No. 12
UK Business Minister Michael Fallon has opened a facility for Bridon International that will manufacture the world’s largest ropes for the offshore oil and gas industry. Bridon Neptune Quay (BNQ) will have the capacity to produce highly engineered ropes in package weights of 650 tonnes, boasting enhanced breaking loads, optimized bend fatigue performance, effective lubrication, and minimal rotation under load. The factory’s rope-closing machine is the largest of its kind in existence and was constructed to a unique specification by German engineering company SKET. The BNQ factory is already operational. The factory’s portside location, along with its Takeup Stand for lifting reels directly from dock to vessel, will help Bridon to improve logistics.
Statoil has exercised a two-year contract option with Aker Solutions for provision of mechanical wireline services on Statoil-operated fields, and mobile drilling units on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The initial three-year contract period began in 2009. Statoil has now exercised the first of two potential two-year contract options. Aker Solutions estimates that the two-year contract extension will generate revenues of between $123-141 million.
Aberdeen-based CNR International (Cote d’Ivoire) SARL (CNRI) has signed a contract to extend its African operations offshore Cote d’Ivoire in Block CI-26. CNRI, the operator of Espoir field in partnership with Tullow Oil and Petroci Holding, has concluded a deal to keep the FPSO Espoir Ivoirien in place until at least second-quarter 2017. The new four-year contract is an extension to an existing agreement with vessel owner BW Offshore. CNRI has also increased its option period on the Espoir Ivoirien through to 2036.
Petrofac and Bowleven have agreed on a strategic alliance to support the proposed development of the Etinde Permit, offshore Cameroon. Under terms of the strategic alliance, Petrofac will provide engineering capability to Euroil, Bowleven’s Cameroonian subsidiary, to support delivery of a Field Development Plan for the proposed first phase of development. The company has also won a further inspection, maintenance and repair contract for Rumaila oil field in southern Iraq with its JV partner, China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corporation. The $229-million contract was awarded by BP Iraq NV, via Rumaila Operating Organization, following a competitive tender.
VAM USA has opened a new Field Service office in San Antonio, Texas. The new office was opened in response to the growing market need for technical support in the area. The new office supports oil & gas activity in the region, where VAM SFC, VAM TOP, VAM SG, and DWC are widely used. The 4,800-sq-ft facility warehouses complete sets of VAM service tools and crossover rentals, and provides connection inspections, and wellsite running assistance.
Weatherford International officially opened its new multi-million-dollar facility in Singapore, which will provide a strategic base for the company’s operations within the Asia Pacific region. The base—which brings together the country’s 300-strong workforce under one roof for the first time—will incorporate manufacturing and technology, assembly and test, repair and maintenance, and warehouse facilities, as well as administrative and office space. The new four-story development also has additional capacity, enabling staffing levels to increase 30% to 400.
Singapore-based EMAS has secured two contracts with major South Korean clients, worth a combined total of $200 million. EMAS’ subsea division (EMAS AMC) was awarded an EPCIC contract in Asia by STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co. Ltd for the engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning of a turret mooring and subsea system for use offshore Africa. EMAS AMC’s scope includes the turnkey delivery of an external turret, including the product swivel, a 3x3 anchor leg system, foundation piles, pipeline end manifold (PLEM), flowlines, risers, power cable and related subsea structures. The company has also secured contracts worth more than $65 million, including options, for projects in the Gulf of Mexico and West Africa. The Gulf of Mexico work will see EMAS AMC introduce the Lewek Falcon, a versatile subsea construction vessel, into the Gulf of Mexico for a long-term campaign on the Walker Ridge Gathering System (WRGS), which is an ultra-deep (2,500 m) set-up to provide natural gas gathering services.
Cameron and Profire Energy, Inc., announced that Cameron will become a non-exclusive authorized distributor of Profire Energy’s combustion technologies, which include burner management systems (BMS) and flare ignition systems (FIS).
TAM International, Inc., opened a new office in Dickinson, North Dakota, to serve Bakken shale fields. The new 10,000-sq-ft building on two acres of land, which opened Nov. 1, will handle a variety of TAM products, including FREECAP Swellable Packers, PosiFrac Multi-Stage Open Hole Frac Systems, PosiFrac Open Hole Straddle Frac Systems, Casing Annulus Packers (CAP), Port Collars for cement integrity, and Thru Tubing products for remedial stimulation and workovers. TAM expects that 15 employees will work at the new office.
Wood Group PSN (WGPSN) has been awarded a contract by DNO Middle East to provide engineering and project support services to Tawke field, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The contract marks WGPSN’s initial expansion into Iraq. The energy services company will deliver engineering studies, detailed design, and technical and operations support to DNO for the ongoing expansion of Tawke field. WGPSN is assigning a team of 30 engineers to the contract, initially based in Abu Dhabi and mobilized into Kurdistan, as required. DNO’s operations in Kurdistan are managed from its office in Erbil.
Abu Dhabi-based Al Mansoori Specialized Engineering has added more than 400 new recruits to its labor force of more than 1,700 employees in recent months. The investment comes ahead of the firm’s 25% growth target for 2013, as E&P in the region is stepped up to fill increasing demand. The firm is also investing in technologies that will allow it to add drillstem testing and open-hole logging to its list of capabilities.
First Subsea has invested over $320,000 in new mooring connector test rig facilities at its production site in Lancaster, UK. The test rig is being used in the manufacture of “next-generation” subsea mooring connectors (SMCs) for deepwater mooring projects: the Jack & St. Malo field's semisubmersible platform and Lucius field’s spar moorings, both in the Gulf of Mexico. The SMC test rig is used for proof load and minimum breaking load testing, up to 2,600 mt.
Remote aerial inspection company Cyberhawk Innovations and Stork Technical Services have won the Business Efficiency category, in the Oil and Gas UK Awards 2012, for a money-saving and time-saving assessment of offshore asset condition. The project is the first offshore inspection in the North Sea to have been carried out using a Remotely Operated Aerial Vehicle (ROAV). WO
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