Highlights of the Year 2016

January 2, 2017

Subsea World News has put together a recap of the most interesting articles for the 2016.

January: Subsea 7’s Ship on Its Way to Rotterdam After Fire

Subsea 7’s pipelay vessel ‘Seven Waves’ returned to the yard in the Netherlands for repairs after a fire on its lay assembly.

Subsea 7 spokesperson confirmed to Subsea World News that the incident occurred during work in Brazil.

The vessel was hired by Petrobras on a five-year charter to develop deep-sea oil fields off the coast of Brazil.

February: Diver Dies After Accident in Norwegian Yard

A 22-year-old diver from Karmoy, Norway died after being critically injured during maintenance work underwater on a platform at Westcon’s shipyard in Ølensvåg.

According to reports the diver ran out of air after getting stuck underwater and was unconscious when he was taken to the hospital.

The diver, was employed in AD Offshore, a supplier of Westcon Yards.

March: Subsea 7 Axes 3600 Jobs in 2015

Oil services company Subsea 7 recorded a loss at the end of fourth quarter on high impairments and lower fleet activity.

Nevertheless, the net loss for the quarter decreased some 57 per cent to $421 million, compared to a net loss of $977 million in the prior-year quarter, considering the Q4 2014 impairments of $1.18 billion.

The company reported workforce of around 9,800 people at the end of 2015, down from approximately 13,400 a year earlier. This brings the total number of workforce reduction to 3600.

April: Harkand Loses Two Vessels

Nordic Trustee and Harkand Finance exercised their rights to terminate the internal bareboat charters for the dive support vessels Harkand Da Vinci and Harkand Atlantis.

The two vessels were scheduled to deliver subsea support services for Maersk Oil’s Flyndre development.

Nordic Trustee acted as bond trustee for the bond issue where Harkand Finance was the issuer.

May: Technip and FMC Technologies Merge into TechnipFMC

Two industry giants, Technip and FMC Technologies, informed that the companies will combine to create a global leader in oil and gas called TechnipFMC.

The combined company would have an equity value of $13 billion based on pre-announcement share prices.

The transaction builds on the companies’ alliance and joint venture, Forsys Subsea, launched in March 2015.

June: Subsea 7 to Axe 5 Vessels and 1,200 Jobs by Early 2017

Subsea 7 announced a second phase of global resizing and cost reduction measures due to continued difficult business and economic conditions in the oil and gas market.

Namely, the group plans to resize its global workforce to approximately 8,000 by early 2017, down from the current level of 9,200.

Up to five vessels are scheduled to leave the current active fleet by early 2017, based on stacking owned vessels and returning chartered vessels when existing contracts expire.

July: Pirates Attack Cable Layer in Red Sea

Pirates attacked a cable laying vessel during operations in the Red Sea, International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) informed.

Sixteen pirates in two skiffs armed with AK47 and an RPG reportedly approached and fired upon a cable laying vessel.

The armed security team onboard returned the fire, causing the pirates to abort the attack and move away.

August: Pioneering Spirit Wraps Up Its First Project

Allseas’ single-lift installation/decommissioning and pipelay vessel ‘Pioneering Spirit’ executed its maiden heavy lift project.

The vessel removed the 13,500 tonne Yme mobile offshore production unit (MOPU) in the North Sea, 100 km off the coast of Norway.

The project was undertaken for Repsol Norge.

September: New Subsea Company Secures Its First Contract

A new subsea company, Rovco, officially launched with the announcement of its first UK contract.

An independent company focused on underwater integrity, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), surveying and subsea services for both oil and gas, and renewables, has secured a contract with UK Marine Trust.

The Bristol-based company was also about to embark on its second underwater survey project in partnership with a south-west diving company.

October: OneSubsea Could Axe 600 Jobs In Leeds

OneSubsea, a Schlumberger company, is said to be considering to close up shop in Leeds in 2017 which could lead to loss of up to 600 jobs.

The company that has over 900 employees at its base in Stourton, Leeds, said its order intake was significantly impacted by the downturn in the oil and gas industry leaving a good deal of its plants “underutilised”.

According to reports, OneSubsea said it would hold a 45-day consultation period on the plans, and retain some staff at its site on Queen Street, Stourton, under the proposals.

November: Saipem Wins USD 1 Billion in New Contracts

Saipem was awarded new contracts and change orders in the E&C offshore segment, for an overall amount of about 1 billion dollars.

In particular, the most significant are the notification of award by Saudi Aramco of two EPIC contracts (engineering, procurement, installation, construction), under the long-term agreement in force and renewed in 2015 until 2021 for activities in Saudi Arabia.

These two contracts refer to, respectively, the development of fields in Marjan, Zuluf and Safaniya located in the Arabian Gulf.

December: Subsea 7 – OneSubsea Alliance Grabs Dalmatian Award

Subsea Integration Alliance between OneSubsea, a Schlumberger company, and Subsea 7 has secured a contract from Murphy Oil for engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) of subsea multiphase boosting system for the Dalmatian field in the Gulf of Mexico.

This is the first EPCIC project award for Subsea Integration Alliance, which was formed July 2015, and represents the industry’s longest deepwater subsea multiphase boosting tieback.