Heerema Vlissingen was awarded the EPCI (Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Installation) contract in February 2009 by Centrica Energy for the largest gas platform of its kind to be installed anywhere in the world. This innovative gas platform is self-installing and portable so that it can be moved to a new location once production from the F3-FA feld is complete.  The platform has a total height of 133 metres of which the legs are 75 meters long and weigh 1,200t each. The topsides have a weight of 4,000 tonnes and are 50 metres wide, 30 metres long and 30 metres in height. The total weight of the platform is 8,800 tonnes. Tino Vinkesteijn, managing director of Heerema Zwijndrecht and Heerema Vlissingen said: “This is already the second major project to be completed this year by Heerema Fabrication Group, which once more demonstrates our excellent project management capabilities.  It’s a major achievement for our project team when it comes to managing all the inter- faces of this complex project, to be finished well ahead of time. Centrica selected Heerema Fabrication Group as its partner for the execution of this project based on its experience and solution-driven approach. Technically it was a challenging project, as this technology has never been used before on a platform of this size in the harsh North Sea environment.

“Completion of this platform has generated various milestones for our Vlissingen yard”, according to Frank Slangen, overall project manager of Heerema Vlissingen. “This unique platform is the largest to date ever built at our Vlissingen yard and has been fabricated in record-time of less than one year. It created approximately 1,000,000 man hours of work for Heerema Vlissingen and its direct subcontractors. To successfully execute this project on-time a large number of subcontractors were appointed, which created a challenge for project management to manage the entire scope with all its interfaces. Also thanks to our partners Iv-Oil & Gas and SPT Offshore, we succeeded to adapt the concept to a much larger scale of this platform”, continues Frank.

John Brusik, project manager Centrica Energy, continues: “It has been an extremely challenging and phase-built design pushing several boundaries. It uses four huge five-storey high suction buckets each big enough to hold more than 2.5 million litres of water to anchor it in position. The self-installed platform was towed more than 200 kilometres from the Netherlands to the F3-FA field. With completion of the successful installation we have reached a fantastic milestone.”

“A magnificent performance of the entire project team. Only few will realize that a master piece has been executed’, according to Rob van der Waal , managing director of Iv-Groep.

Mark Riemers, managing director of SPT Offshore adds: “This has been a massive achievement. After more than 1,5 years of hard work and facing many challenges we managed to successfully install the platform well before the contractual date .”

The F3-FA field is located in the north of the Dutch sector, about 240 kilometres north of Den Helder in a water depth of 40 metres. Centrica is developing the field, which was initially discovered in the early 1970s.

Company profile Heerema Fabrication Group

Heerema Fabrication Group (HFG), headquartered in Zwijndrecht, the Netherlands, is a leading engineering and fabrication contractor for large and complex offshore structures to the global oil and gas and energy industry. HFG owns three large production locations of which two are situated in the Netherlands (Vlissingen and Zwijndrecht), one in the United Kingdom (Hartlepool) and a fabrication facility in Poland (Opole). The engineering company HFG Engineering European in the Netherlands (Zwijndrecht) is also part of HFG. Heerema Fabrication Group employs over 1,000 people and is part of the Heerema Group.

Before starting its journey to Russian waters, the Solitaire was adapted to Nord Stream’s requirements in Rotterdam, where each piece of equipment was thoroughly tested in port.

The Solitaire has taken up laying the pipeline 7.5 kilometres from the Russian landfall and will continue in a westerly direction through the Gulf of Finland to kilometre point (KP) 300. Afterwards, in January 2011, the pipelay vessel will move on to KP 350 and lay the pipeline back towards KP 300. The Solitaire will also lay the same section of the second string of the pipeline from May to September 2011. The dynamically-positioned Solitaire will operate without anchors in this congested part of the Baltic Sea known for its many historic mine lines.

The section of both strings of the pipeline between Russian landfall and KP 7.5 has already been laid by another pipelay vessel, Saipem’s Castoro Sei, which is currently laying the pipeline in Finnish waters in an easterly direction between KP 451 and KP 350.

This complex lay sequence was developed by Nord Stream and agreed with the Finnish and Russian authorities to meet environmental restrictions while making the construction vessels work as efficiently as possible. To give just one example: there will be no construction works in the north-eastern part of the route in winter when it is covered by ice; this also ensures that breeding seals are not disturbed.

Construction of Nord Stream - the most advanced of the new pipelines that Europe will need to meet its future energy requirements - is progressing on schedule and according to plan. Over 250 kilometres of the first pipeline have already been laid in Swedish and Finnish waters. At the Russian landfall in Portovaya Bay, close to Vyborg, and at the German landfall at Lubmin, near Greifswald, both strings of the pipeline have already been constructed and pulled ashore.

When completed in 2012, both strings of the Nord Stream pipeline will be 1,224 kilometres long and comprise 202,000 concrete weight-coated steel pipes each weighing up to 23 tonnes. The Nord Stream Pipeline will transport 55 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas a year to Europe, enough to supply more than 26 million European households.

The two-phase, £11.75 million Kishorn Port Masterplan has been drawn up by a joint venture of national and local businesses. Meanwhile, a Scottish Government report has confirmed the yard as a national priority for commercial redevelopment to supply manufacturing, assembly, fabrication and other logistics for offshore renewables. And the report (National Renewables Infrastructure Plan, or NRIP) has confirmed that Kishorn can be brought to readiness for less investment than the other ten prime sites it identifies.

The two businesses behind the redevelopment plan are the national quarry products and construction materials company Leiths, and west highland-based transport and logistics business Ferguson Transport.
The companies, who have existing quarrying and freight shipping business operations at Kishorn, have created Kishorn Port Limited and acquired a mix of ownership and rights to its range of facilities, including its dry dock, 26 hectares of hardstanding, slipway and four deepwater quays.

The largely dormant Wester Ross facility, created more than 30 years ago to build super-sized oil and gas platforms, once saw the construction of the world’s largest man-made moveable object - the 600,000 tonne Ninian oil platform - and later the huge concrete caissons to form the base for the Skye Bridge.

The NRIP report, produced by Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, stresses the need for renewables candidate ports to ensure good resources, including quaysides, hardstanding and utilities like power and water, are in place for strong industry demand within three years or sooner. It cites Kishorn as a priority, in its own right and as a core part of a wider Scottish ‘West Coast Cluster’ of ports carrying out manufacturing and other operations.

Kishorn Port director Alasdair Ferguson said:”Kishorn is a sleeping giant of a manufacturing and service hub for renewables, with the potential to create hundreds of skilled jobs for the west highlands in sectors like engineering, fabrication and transport. And it’s a light sleeper too - because of huge investment in the past, the initial estimated cost to restore the infrastructure - in phase one of our masterplan - is just £2.75 million, compared to between £5million and £65 million for the other nominated sites around Scotland.”

Fellow director Simon Russell, who is chief executive of Leiths, said:”We are delighted that our own expert report has shown that Kishorn Port’s redevelopment is not only feasible but is highly cost-effective compared to other sites, despite the greater area of accessible industrial land, dry dock and deepwater access. We can now confidently take the project to market in the knowledge that we could beat the NRIP report’s three-year infrastructure readiness target by more than half.”

Dockwise has also been selected as the contractor of choice by Keppel Fels Ltd. for the transport, loading, and discharge of a float-over barge that includes both living quarters and a topside. This combined cargo, weighing more than 10,000 metric tons, is scheduled for Q3-Q4 2011 aboard the Swan.

Dockwise has been awarded six short-term contracts for the 2010 transport of several jack-up rigs, including the Sea Tower, Rowan EXL 2, KS Endeavor, and Atwood Beacon, to various locations around the world. In addition, Dockwise will be transporting the El Qaher 1 & 2 BMC 375 Pacific Class jack-up rigs from Singapore to Alexandria for Egyptian Offshore Drilling in Q4 2010 and Q1 2011. The Comany operates the largest fleet of specialised vessels in the world: A versatile fleet of 19 semi-submersible vessels of different concepts and designs. Dockwise provides specialty services in Heavy Marine Transport, Offshore Engineering, Transport & Installation, Logistical Management, Offshore Equipment, and Yacht Transport.

André Goedée, Chief Executive Officer:”We are focused on our efforts to maintain market leadership and the increase in shorter-term contracts has helped to steadily build our 2011 backlog. We are seeing encouraging signs across our markets, with prices stabilizing. Tendering activity for larger projects also continues.

The efforts of the global Dockwise sales force and the added flexibility of having operational vessels around the globe helps to optimize the hit-rate, particularly in today’s continuously changing economic environment. While some drilling contractors have increasingly specialized in the high end jack-up rigs, it becomes evident that the larger Type 2 and Type 1 vessels of Dockwise are the only qualified vessels for this large, new generation of jack ups. The growth in the number of high end jack-up rigs, following the new-build program of recent years, means that Dockwise, with its existing number of high-end vessels in the fleet, is the first to benefit from a higher than average utilization rate of this type of rig.”

“Offshore Solutions is a young company with a tremendous future, ” said Mr Young. “I am extremely fortunate to be coming on board at a time when our Offshore Access System (OAS) and Offshore Transfer System (OTS) are being recognised by both the energy and alternative energy industries as the game-changers that they are. The achievements to date in creating not only a new company, but a new business sector have been tremendous and are making a step change in the way we work offshore. I am enthusiastic about the opportunities that lie ahead to further develop the business.”

The Offshore Access System (OAS)* and the smaller Offshore Transfer System (OTS)** produced by Offshore Solutions, connects a vessel to an offshore installation to allow the safe transfer of personnel. It provides a safe, reliable, efficient and cost effective method of transferring personnel offshore - genuinely providing the smarter way to work. Adding these systems to the right vessel results in reduced operational expenditure, increased efficiency, reduced downtime and increased productivity.

AMEC and Cofely both look forward to welcoming Mr Young to the OSBV organisation and continuing the close working relationship which has developed between the respective companies.

In Noreco’s latest Norwegian project, Senergy is to lead the project management for the drilling of the Svaneøgle prospect, which is located in block 17/6 in the Norwegian North Sea Continental Shelf. The drilling work is scheduled to begin in Q4 2010. Daren Wallwork, vice president of Senergy’s energy services said: “Senergy’s work on Svaneøgle follows our successful project management of drilling on Noreco’s Tasta prospect, which was completed both on time and within budget.

“Working closely with Noreco, we were responsible for the exploration drilling programme, well operation management, logistics and well construction reporting. The well construction operations included drilling, coring, electric line logging, well abandonment, and other rig based operations including mobilisation to and from the Tasta well location.

 ”We are now looking forward to beginning work on Svaneøgle, having been focused on the well planning since February 2010. The scope of work undertaken with Noreco reinforces how Senergy has positioned itself as a key player in Norway’s energy sector through its innovative approach and niche capabilities including petrophysical analysis, reservoir seismic characterisation, core analysis, and geomechanics and geology.”

 Senergy has been supporting Noreco since July 2007 when its integrated wells team was enlisted to deliver well planning activities during exploration drilling at the Tasta prospect, Noreco’s first well as an operator in Norway. The Tasta well was located 15km east of the Jotun Field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. The well was drilled to a vertical depth of 2,249m below sea level and whilst no hydrocarbons were found, Noreco said Senergy played a vital role in the effective delivery of the project.

 Kenneth Larsen, Noreco’s drilling manager, said: “Senergy’s contribution to the delivery of our first operated well has been of vital importance to Noreco. The company’s professional and detailed planning and technical expertise - combined with a real team effort - have underpinned this project and been fundamental to its safe and efficient delivery.”

 Next year, Senergy will continue to support Noreco on its exploration programme in Denmark.

The Kumang Cluster field located about 250km offshore Bintulu is operated by PETRONAS’ exploration and production subsidiary, PETRONAS Carigali.  Phase 1 consists of F9, Kumang and Kanowit fields.  It comprises a central processing platform (CPP) at Kanowit field (KAKG-A) and drilling platform for F9 (F9JT-A) and Kumang (KUJT-A).  Once installed, the Kumang Cluster facilities are able to supply gas to MLNG-2 terminal in Bintulu.The engineering, procurement and construction work order is valued at approximately RM147 million (USD 45 million).   This work order is the result of the frame agreement signed between APSAP and PETRONAS Carigali back in 2009 for the supply of a complete subsea production system and services for a period of three (3) years or until the completion of the Kanowit project.   Under the scope of work for this work order, APSAP will complete the engineering and delivery of a subsea production system consisting of two subsea trees, wellheads, subsea control system, manifold with high integrity pressure protection system, pipeline-end manifold and all tie-in equipment. APSAP will utilise Aker Solutions’ high-tech manufacturing centre in the Port Klang Free Zone to deliver the project and the equipment. Delivery of the subsea hardware is scheduled for 2011.   Meanwhile, the second contract with an estimated value of RM17 million (USD 5 million) will cover project management, engineering, procurement and manufacturing of subsea steel tube umbilical and auxiliary equipment.   The subsea umbilical, which contains steel tubes and electric cable, will connect the host platform to the Kanowit subsea field.   APSAP will be delivering the contract out of Aker Solutions’ purposed-built subsea umbilical facility in Moss, Norway.  Delivery is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2011.  

Dave Hutchinson, president - Subsea Asia Pacific, Aker Solutions, says the success of this project is of high importance: “Kanowit is PETRONAS Carigali’s first subsea venture in Malaysian waters.  It will be an important reference for future subsea jobs in Malaysia and a major milestone towards realising Malaysia as the regional deepwater centre for the oil and gas industry. Aker Solutions is honoured to be given a role in this transformation process. We are confident that we have the knowledge and skills that are vital to achieving the deepwater hub ambition together”.