Offshore staff

HOUSTON -- Saudi Aramco has awarded McDermott International Inc. subsidiary J. Ray McDermott S.A. a four-year project to engineer, procure, construct, install, hook up, and commission the Manifa field facilities in the Arabian Gulf.

Engineering on the Manifa project is to begin this month. McDermott will provide services from its regional headquarters in Jebel Ali, UAE, as well as from its Chennai, India, engineering office. Fabrication of the platforms, with a combined weight of over 16,700 metric tons (18,408.6 tons), will begin at the Jebel Ali facility in September 2007.

The project also includes modification work for design, procurement, installation, hookup, and commissioning of communication packages on 26 existing platforms.

"It's a matter of great pride for us to be associated with this significant project," says Bob Deason, J. Ray president and COO. "Saudi Aramco is a long-term and valued customer. Our safe delivery of past structures won us recognition from them last year; and we expect to achieve high safety and quality performance on the Manifa project as well.

"We recently embarked on an ambitious development plan for our fabrication facility at Jebel Ali. The plan involves capacity expansion and deployment of additional equipment, resulting in an increase in both efficiency and workable man-hours," Deason says.

The project is expected to be competed by 2011. During this four-year period, J. Ray's marine vessels will carry out the offshore construction and hookup of the facilities in several campaigns, the company says.

5/29/2007