Offshore staff

LONDON --Oil & Gas UK's supply chain forum has introduced three new contracts aimed at simplifying contracting procedures on the UK continental shelf.

The documents, known as "model ITTs" (invitation to tender), cover the marine construction, topside support, and well services sectors, and complement an existing document used by the UK drilling industry. They provide a standard format for suppliers to follow when preparing their response to a purchaser's request for service or equipment.

According to forum chairman Ian Donaldson, the documents also should speed the tender/response process. "Using the model ITTs is beneficial to both parties as operators can cut costs in the stages of tendering and evaluation and contractors in preparing their bids.

"We envisage approximate savings in the region of £25-50,000 ($51.64-103.28 million) per bid and given the volume of spending across the industry this will translate into savings running into millions of pounds annually," Donaldson says.

11/20/2007