Offshore staff
ABERDEEN, UK -- Petrofac is seeing a "massive" increase in tendering activity for mature field facilities in the North Sea, according to Offshore Engineering and Operations Division Manager Bill Dunnett.
Dunnett, speaking today at Offshore Europe, said his company was pursuing further opportunities in offshore brownfield and greenfield developments. The company is best known in the North Sea for providing operations support services to production platforms or full-scale operations management as duty-holder.
Its most recent award was a three-year contract from Apache North Sea to provide offshore construction services and related onshore engineering for the Forties field and its five fixed platforms. This role was previously performed by Wood Group, but Apache decided to re-tender the contract.
Currently, said Dunnett, Petrofac is managing the transition of Forties personnel to its stewardship. The company is also working with Apache on a business plan for engineering activity for 2010.
Petrofac foresees further openings for this type of work both in the UK sector and offshore Norway, he added.
Earlier this year, the company made its debut as a field development operator in the UK North Sea when its Don Area project came on stream. Petrofac managed all aspects of the project, including the purchase and upgrade of the Northern Producer floating production platform.
Production will shortly be directed through a new pipeline to Lundin Oil's Thistle platform, and Petrofac is considering options for further tie-ins in the area.
Recently the company acquired another redundant production semi-submersible on a speculative basis for re-deployment on another project, as yet to be determined. The AH001, which had previously worked for Hess UK, is currently at the McNulty yard on Tyneside, north-east England. "We are looking over the asset, getting detailed knowledge of its condition, and evaluating it for various development scenarios," said Dunnett.
09/09/2009
