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Technip Lands Odd Job Subsea Gig in GoM

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Technip Lands Odd Job Subsea Gig in GoM

Technip has been awarded a lump sum contract by Deep Gulf Energy II, for the development of the Odd Job field.

This ultra deepwater field is located in Mississippi Canyon, offshore New Orleans, in the Gulf of Mexico, in water depths ranging from 1,330 to 1,825 meters.

According to Technip, the contract consists of: Project management and engineering services; Fabrication and installation of approximately 23 kilometers of pipe-in-pipe flowline; Fabrication and installation of approximately 2 kilometers of Steel Catenary Riser (SCR); Design, fabrication and installation of in-line sled, flowline end termination; Fabrication of jumper; Pre-commissioning for the flowline and SCR system.

Technip’s operating center in Houston, Texas, USA, will manage the overall project. The SCR and flowline system will be fabricated at the Group’s spoolbase in Mobile, Alabama, USA. The offshore installation is expected to be performed in the summer of 2016 by Technip’s vessel the Deep Blue, one of the world’s largest ultra-deepwater pipelay and subsea construction vessel.

Deanna Goodwin, President of Technip in North America, said: “Technip is delighted to continue its strong long-lasting relationship with Deep Gulf Energy and to bring and share its unique experience to this new project.”

Source: Halliburton To Be Told About EU Concerns Over Baker Hughes Deal

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Source: Halliburton To Be Told About EU Concerns Over Baker Hughes Deal

Oilfield services provider Halliburton will meet with EU antitrust regulators next week where it is expected to be told about competition worries over its $35 billion bid for Baker Hughes, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday. The European Commission has been reviewing the proposed tie-up of the No. 2 and No. 3 players since Nov. 27 when Halliburton refiled a request for approval after an earlier application was dismissed because it provided insufficient data.

The preliminary scrutiny is scheduled to end on Jan. 12. The so-called state of play meeting is scheduled for late next week. Such events, which usually take place at the end of the third week of the Commission’s preliminary scrutiny, are typically an opportunity for the enforcer to set out potential problems arising from merger deals.

They also ratchet up the pressure on companies to offer concessions or face a lengthy investigation which could last five months or more. Halliburton has already agreed to divest $5.2 billion in overlapping businesses to quell concerns the merger would lead to higher prices and less innovation. It is prepared to sell businesses with total revenues of $7.5 billion.

Commission spokesman Ricardo Cardoso and Baker Hughes spokeswoman Erica Shillings Bundick declined to comment. Halliburton spokeswoman Emily Mir did not immediately reply to an email requesting comment. U.S. antitrust authorities are also looking into the deal which has already been cleared in Canada, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Colombia and Turkey. Decisions from Australia and Brazil are pending. 

 

 

 

 

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SALVAGE DIVES AROUND THE WORLD

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SALVAGE DIVES AROUND THE WORLD

Ever wonder what happens when shipwrecks happen, or are discovered? Well, modern-day explorers, aka salvage divers, are contracted to rescue remaining objects of value from the ships, to disassemble wrecks for safety and environmental reasons or to provide research assistance on sites in the ocean. Salvage divers can play many roles, often at the same time: construction worker, historian, hero and detective, and they connect the past and the present through secretive, underwater worlds. At the moment there are many salvage expeditions taking place around the world, combining art, history, sociology, restoration and, of course, the hands-on, hard core skills of commercial diving.

Diving for treasure and knowledge

The London, a British warship, inexplicably exploded in 1665 just off the coast of Southend, UK, and was discovered in 2005 with some mysteries aboard. Funded by English Heritage, salvage divers have recovered artefacts from the wreck that shed light on England’s naval history and technology from the era. Strangely, many female skeletal remains have been found in the wreck, likely the wives and sweethearts of the crew. But why were they aboard, in the middle of a war with the French? If we ever find out, it will be thanks to the dive crews who work in very difficult conditions on the site, diving between tides with extremely low visibility, sometimes able to see only a few inches ahead. Despite these challenges, divers have found a wealth of objects by the low light of their headlamps – pistols, scales, spoons, navigational devices, and piles of leather shoes. Local volunteers are donating their time to classifying the artefacts which will find a home in the Southend museum.

Flipping a beast

 

In 2012 the world experienced the closest thing to a modern-day Titanic accident: the sinking of cruise ship Costa Concordia off the coast of Italy, in which 34 people perished. The salvage operation included parbuckling the boat, which involved lifting the 27,000 ton vessel from lying on its side on the ocean bottom to floating upright, requiring a custom platform to be built, constructed largely by salvage divers. The whole project required over 48,000 man hours of engineering and over 22,000 dives.

 

“You could go down 100 feet in a 3mm or 4mm wetsuit and you could pretty much see the surface from there; the visibility was just phenomenal. I have never before seen three foot long mussels in my life. Though we’re not allowed to eat anything we find in the ocean, we’d go on land to this nearby island, which nobody ever really heard of, Giglio, and we’d go to the restaurants… oh, the gelato, the chocolate, the wine, the olive oil, it’s so delicious you’re just like, l’m living the dream! It’s pretty much like a vacation party spot, I couldn’t think of a better spot for the boat to go down. Most of the work was cutting, welding, tons of welding, fabricating, removal, concrete grounding, a lot of dives. National Geographic came out and filmed us – I was like, I can put that on the bucket list!”

Here’s a time lapse video of the Costa Concordia being towed from its original site. Click Here For Video

Exploring distant depths

In another recent and strange tragedy, a Malaysia Airlines flight disappeared over the deep, inhospitable trenches of the Indian Ocean off the coast of Australia. The cause for the plane’s disappearance is still unknown – one reason that Australian and other forces are vigorously plowing ahead with the search. Divers initially explored the area where the plane was thought to be. However, since then, telecommunications evidence seems to show that the area may be larger than previously thought. High-tech sonar devices have mapped some of the sea floor; massive trenches and an underwater volcano have been found. One of the world’s least-explored undersea areas is now being combed, mapped and will perhaps yield even more mysteries of the deep – and salvage divers will be the first in the know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Technip, Subsea 7 Cleared for 2016 Work for Norway Operators

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Technip, Subsea 7 Cleared for 2016 Work for Norway Operators

The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) has given Statoil, Gassco and ExxonMobil consent for manned underwater operations in 2016. The services are to be supplied by Technip and Subsea 7.

Statoil has signed framework agreements with the companies Technip Norge and Subsea 7 Norway for the provision of such services to the three companies.

The consent applies to manned underwater operations down to 180 metres and covers both planned and undefined operational and project tasks, as well as emergency repairs.

The PSA is to be informed in advance when the individual planned tasks are to start. Before potential operational and project tasks or activities linked to emergency repairs begin, the companies must provide the PSA with supplementary information about the specific activities.


Technip will be using DSV Skandi Arctic and DSV Wellservicer, and the light diving craft LDC Technip Seahunter. Subsea 7 will be using DSV Seven Falcon, DSV Seven Atlantic, DSV Seven Pelican and LDC Seven Spray.

Statoil has applied for consent for its own activities and on behalf of Gassco. In addition, ExxonMobil has submitted its own application as a supplement to Statoil’s.

For Statoil and Gassco the consent applies from 1.12.2015 to 30.11.2016, while ExxonMobil’s applies from 1.1.2016 to 31.12.2016, in accordance with the companies’ applications.

Dolphin Files for Bankruptcy

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Dolphin Files for Bankruptcy

Norwegian seismic player Dolphin is filing for bankruptcy after failing to secure financial support to keep the business afloat.

The oil price drop has been particularly tough for the offshore seismic market, forcing all service providers to restructure and try to adapt to challenging times.

The Oslo-listed company has, over the past few months, looked for financial solution, however, last week, Dolphin warned that it had not reached an agreement with the main stakeholders and if the answers don’t come soon, it will have no choice but to file for insolvent liquidation of the company.

Following that announcement, Dolphin said that today its board of directors unanimously came to the conclusion that there is no longer a basis for continued operations, and that the company, and its subsidiary, will therefore today, Monday 14, 2015, file a petition for bankruptcy.

In addition, as a consequence of the bankruptcy petition, all trading of the company’s shares and bonds will be suspended.

Tim Wells, chairman and Atle Jacobsen, CEO said; “Due to the continued deterioration in the oil service market Dolphin has had to make the decision to file for bankruptcy. It is a difficult decision, but in light of the unpredictability of the oil price and subsequent spending cuts of our customers, it has become impossible to have the visibility needed to continue our business. We have worked diligently since 2011 to build Dolphin into a company that would benefit all of our stakeholders- shareholders, lenders, suppliers, customers and our employees.

“We would like to express our thanks to all who have contributed to Dolphin over the last five years.”

 

 

 

 

 

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Is Underwater Welding for You?

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Is Underwater Welding for You?

For most folks, taking that first dip in the ocean signals the coming of summer and all the great things that come with its arrival. Cookouts, trips to the beach, vacations, and night skies peppered by bursts of fireworks. However, for a special breed of welder, a dip in the ocean represents the start of a workday, welding and cutting ship hulls, oil rigs, and pipelines beneath the ocean’s surface.

Underwater welders are truly remarkable in that their craft demands a high degree of skill in not only welding, but diving as well. If this aquatic twist on conventional welding speaks to your sense of adventure, or if you’re simply curious as to what it takes, then join us as we dive deeper into the world of underwater welding.

How do I get started as an Underwater Welder?
Picture a Venn diagram comprised of two large circles. One is labeled “Welder” and the other is labeled “Diver”. In the middle of this diagram is an area where these two circles overlap. In this proverbial sweet spot, you’ll find the welder-divers of the world. To become an underwater welder, you’ll have to be exceedingly proficient at not just one of these tasks, but both.

The majority of the work performed by underwater welders isn’t actually welding, but rather the preparation tasks that lead to actual welding activities. This means that in addition to being certified to weld to the AWS D3.6M Underwater Welding Code, an underwater welder must also be certified as a commercial diver.

 

The good news is that if you don’t quite fall into the middle of the Venn diagram, there are plenty of ways to get you there. If you’re already certified as a topside welder, there are several training facilities and commercial diving schools that can provide the training necessary to make the transition into underwater welding. Conversely, if you’re already a skilled diver, but don’t quite know your way around the workshop, you can look into basic welding training, and then take the steps to learn to weld to the specifications required for wet (underwater) and dry (hyperbaric/cofferdam) welding. In both cases, you can expect to begin as a diver tender, or what is essentially a diving apprentice. This phase of your career will allow you to develop the skills to weld in accordance to the AWS D3.6 Underwater Welding Code, which virtually all contractors will require.

I think I’ve got some of the basics. What are some other things I should know?
The most desirable underwater welder-divers are qualified to assist diving contractors in any number of pre-job tasks, including underwater cutting, fitting and rigging, inspection and nondestructive testing, drafting, and underwater photography. Formal training is recommended and maintaining qualifications is important. To make a long story short, the more well-versed you are in a wide-range of underwater welding processes, the better off you’ll be.

Okay, I’m now a world-class diver and a virtuoso welder…where can I find work and how much can I expect to make?

Underwater welding serves a wide range of industrial needs, and as such, the type of work you can find will depend on several variables. For example, projects such as offshore structure repair may be readily available during certain times of the year, when storms are more common, and not during others. A potentially uneven work schedule is often paired with geographic mobility. Most jobs are found in coastal areas, though not always the same ones. Those who prefer a highly structured work schedule or suffer from aquaphobia need not apply!

As far as the types of industries you’ll be able to work in, the scope is quite broad. The oil & gas, nuclear, shipbuilding, and marine salvaging industries are big ones, but welder-divers can also work in a variety of fields that may not be the first things that come to mind when thinking about underwater welding. Some of these include bridge construction, dam repair, hazardous material management and transport, cruise ship repair, and the armed forces.

The majority of underwater welders are paid on a per-job basis. More and so the nature of the jobs you will find, as well as the locations, may change considerably over time. For many welder-divers, the variety and scope of the work available, in addition to the earning potential, is what makes underwater welding such an attractive option. Underwater Welders can easily clear more than $100,000 per year if they line up a steady stream of projects year-round. The more open one is to working away from home, and the more skilled one is in a variety of welding applications and processes, the more opportunities will come your way. For current information on the expected earning potential for commercial divers and related disciplines, please visit the Depart of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That sounds great for now, but what does the future look like for an underwater welder?

A career that requires such a broad range of skills provides ample opportunities for new challenges and professional advancement. Underwater welding requires a great amount of skill, as it is a very physically demanding job with a high degree of technical complexity. As such, the industry will continue to demand higher quality standards for underwater welds and more certification of underwater welding systems and personnel. These demands will challenge the underwater welding community to meet more complex technical specifications, safety standards, welding criteria, inspection methods, environmental factors, and other considerations.

In regards to what an underwater welder can do down the line, there are typically a bevy of paths they can take. Many welder-divers go on to become engineers, diving instructors, and diving operation supervisors. Additionally, many also go on to fill management and consulting positions.

The skills and experience accrued as an underwater welder can also put you in a position to become a AWS Certified Welding Inspector, which in turn can open up additional opportunities, underwater and elsewhere.

I think I might be ready to take the plunge. Where can I get more information?

If you ready to test the waters, visit AWS Underwater Welding Resources to get in contact with a training center.

Thanks for the information. Any chance you can tell me about other welding careers?

Absolutely. Visit Career Pathways on AWS WeldLink, a free, online, career planning and management tool designed specifically for the needs of welding professionals, businesses, and schools. The website is brand new so expect the list of careers to grow over the next few weeks. In the meantime, please comment below or get in contact with us about any other welding careers that you might be interested in, and we’ll do our best to feature it in a future blog post!

 

 

 

 

 

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Halliburton, Baker Hughes Extend Time Period to Close Merger

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Halliburton, Baker Hughes Extend Time Period to Close Merger

Halliburton Co. and Baker Hughes Inc. announced that they would extend the time period to close their pending merger to April 30 as they work to satisfy Justice Department concerns.

Halliburton announced an agreement to buy Baker Hughes in November 2014 to better compete against industry leader Schlumberger Ltd. by achieving scale and building a better technology portfolio in a market where the ability to innovate is increasingly critical for success.

At that time, Halliburton said it planned to divest assets that generate as much as $7.5 billion in annual revenue to win antitrust approval. 

 

 

 

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Jumbo Delivers Piles for Prelude FLNG

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Jumbo Delivers Piles for Prelude FLNG

Jumbo has transported 16 piles for the Shell’s floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) Prelude field development in North West Australia.

The Technip-Samsung consortium was contracted for the design, construction and installation of the FLNG facility.

The FLNG will be moored with a total of sixteen anchor lines. The anchors in this system are steel, 5½ meter diameter piles, each 62 meter long and weighing over 650 tons each and produced in the Aviles area, Spain.

Jumbo was hired by Technip to transport these sixteen piles from Aviles to Batam in Indonesia. Once there, the piles are transferred by Jumbo to cargo barges, which will be taken to the installation vessel for installation.

Jumbo Jubilee and Fairpartner were scheduled to take these loads to their destination. On the October 2, the first piles were loaded by the Jumbo Jubilee crew and on the November 26, the project was completed as the Fairpartner crew offloaded the last of the sixteen piles onto the cargo barge.

Ocean Installer Gets More Work from Statoil

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Ocean Installer Gets More Work from Statoil

Ocean Installer has signed an amendment with Statoil for riser replacement operations at the Troll C field.

Additionally, this includes options for work at the Vigdis field. The work will be executed under the SLMP Marine Installation Contract.

“We are extremely pleased to have secured more work at the Troll field as the Norwegian Continental Shelf continues to be an area of great importance to us. Following up from our success on the highly complex SIMOPRO operations for Statoil in 2015, this new award allows us to further reinforce our great cooperation with Statoil,” says Ocean Installer CEO Steinar Riise.

The work scope at Troll C includes recovery and installation of the oil export riser and two production risers. This work requires subsea and topside disconnection and removal of existing risers, and subsea tie-in and topside pull-in of new risers.

Optional work includes flexible jumper replacement operations at the Vigdis field as well as other subsea operations.

Ocean Installer will utilise its construction support vessel (CSV) Normand Vision.

The Troll C field is located in Blocks 31/2, 31/3, 31/5 and 31/6 of the North Sea approx. 80km west of Bergen at a water depth at of approximately 338m. The Troll C facility is also utilised for production from the Fram field.

The Troll C work scope will take place in spring and summer 2016.

UK Shale Gas Could Create Thousands of Jobs, but More Work Needed

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UK Shale Gas Could Create Thousands of Jobs, but More Work Needed

The emergence of a shale gas industry in the UK would create thousands of jobs for the country, but presently-available predictions of job creation and likely benefits to the UK’s trade balance have been made with “less than ideal” amounts of factual data coupled with guesswork. So says the ‘Final Report’ from industry-funded body The Task Force on Shale Gas.

The report notes that the estimated number of new jobs that would be created by a UK shale gas industry ranges from 74,000 for the whole industry to 5,333 in the northern economy without a supply-chain hub. But it concludes that a sufficient number of exploratory wells be drilled, hydraulically fractured and tested in order to provide the industry, government and public with a more accurate idea of the amount of gas that is economically recoverable.

“Only by doing so can operators and others evaluate whether and where an industry might develop and at what pace,” the report stated.

The report also states that “greater clarity” is needed about what tax arrangements are required in order to enable a shale gas industry to get up and running.

“Government incentives should, rightly, be needed only for initial exploratory drilling, until an industry becomes established and self-sufficient. We believe the government needs to be completely transparent about tax incentives such as halving the rate of tax applied to profits of shale gas and these ought to be reviewed in full if and when an industry (of any scale) is up and running, as was the case with North Sea allowances,” the report’s authors stated.

In December 2013, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne confirmed a tax allowance aimed at boosting the development of shale gas resources. This would see shale gas producers pay a tax of just 30 percent on profits from any shale gas they produce, compared to the 62 percent tax levied on profits from hydrocarbons produced by conventional means on the UK Continental Shelf. 

Meanwhile, The Task Force on Shale Gas said that it is strongly in favor of government spending to develop skills and training programs to support shale gas development.

On the government’s plans to establish a significant community payments system in order that local communities benefit from having shale gas exploration in their area, the Task Force said that shale gas operators should outline exactly how they intend to provide GBP 100,000 [$160,000] of community benefits for exploratory well pads.

“Local communities should know how they will benefit from this and where possible should have a say in how they benefit,” the report stated.

For all wider community payments, industry and government should define exactly what they mean by ‘communities’, with the author’s adding:

“It seems clear that those properties directly affected by shale gas operations face the most disruption. As we have seen, in the United States this is countered by the expectation of royalty payments. In the UK, for example, residents living near a developing or subsequently producing well site should benefit from the revenues of that site, according to an agreed formula.” 

The Task Force noted that operators should not be left to administer community benefits payments as they see fit, neither should it be left entirely to local authorities, “in order to ensure maximum levels of transparency, community involvement and engagement”.

Welcoming the release of the Final Report, shale gas industry body UK Onshore Oil and Gas (UKOOG) noted that it had also concluded that “shale gas can be produced safely and usefully in the UK”, as well as finding that there is “no more risk to the public from fracking than other comparable industries”.

UKOOG added: “Gas is integral to our life providing electricity, heating for over 80 percent of our homes and as a vital raw material for making products such as computers, clothing, medicines and cosmetics as well as providing fertilizer for food production.

“We have already seen a significant shift to imported gas and this is set to continue. Shale gas will provide a means of addressing this and is a clear way of enhancing the UK’s energy security and will help combat concerns about the security of supply.”

However, environmental groups were critical of the report’s conclusions. Reuters reported Greenpeace UK energy campaigner Hannah Martin as saying: “If the UK government is really committed to keeping its end of the [recent] Paris deal, it must rethink its support for fracking and back safe, cheap, clean energy instead.”

 

 

 

 

 

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