Alatas expands North Sea footprint with brand new contract

Crane services provider Alatas has been awarded a three-year crane operations and maintenance contract with Ithaca Energy, which has strengthened its presence in the North Sea.

Alatas will provide engineering, crane operators, repairs, spare supply parts and maintenance support to six of Ithaca’s assets: Alba North, Alba FSU, Captain FPSO, Captain WPP, Captain BLP, Erskine, and FPF1. The three-year contract for the provision of the services also contains extension options.

Alatas confirmed to Offshore Energy that the contract was for resident crane operator/technicians 365 days per year, adhoc crane operators, field service technicians and onshore engineering along with project management, workshop, and logistics support.

Brendan Forbes, the Alatas Group Technical Director said: “We are delighted to have been awarded this contract from Ithaca Energy. It is a welcome addition to our growing global portfolio of managed crane contracts and comes at a time of sustained growth across the group. With over 30 years of experience in provision of crane operations and maintenance management, particularly on ageing assets, we look forward to delivering crane integrity and operational safety for Ithaca”.

One of the key assets the company will be servicing is the Captain platform and floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. Ithaca Energy sanctioned the Captain Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Stage 2 project, which is the next phase of development at the Captain field, in April 2021. The field is located in the UK sector of the North Sea, around 130 kilometres north of Aberdeen.

In June, Ithaca awarded Worley with a two-year contract for the provision of engineering and procurement services to the EOR Stage 2 project and Petrofac with a two-and-a-half-year contract for fabricating, constructing, and commissioning the topsides development.

In the North Sea, Alatas is also in charge of supporting crane operations for Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM) and Shell since 2019, after being awarded a five-year contract, covering 43 cranes across 32 platforms supported by Alatas Operations & Engineering and Workshop Facilities in Aberdeen and Bradford.