Maersk Drilling puts focus on innovation with new appointment

Danish offshore driller Maersk Drilling has named a chief commercial and innovation officer to lead its newly-established Commercial and Innovation function.

Maersk Drilling said on Wednesday that Morten Kelstrup would join the company as the CCIO from a position of managing director of Maersk Oil UK on May 1, 2018.

He was previously the managing director of Maersk Oil Kazakhstan and head of commercial in Maersk Oil.

Jørn Madsen, Maersk Drilling CEO, said: “Morten has extensive leadership and first-hand experience in the industry, and he understands the current market and the needs of Maersk Drilling’s customers. His proven record of successfully driving business innovation will be a great asset in Maersk Drilling’s commitment to reducing well costs for customers.”

Kelstrup will lead the joint Commercial and Innovation function that has been established to reflect Maersk Drilling’s enhanced focus on creating value for customers through partnerships, digital solutions, applied technologies, and new business models.

“The new function will commercialize the innovation that’s already taking place throughout the organization and bring new value propositions to the market. I am confident that Morten will help strengthen Maersk Drilling’s collaboration across the industry, which is crucial in creating joint value for partners and customers,” Madsen added.

Speaking of partnerships, Maersk Drilling and Maersk Supply Service have recently established a joint venture company focused on decommissioning market.

The JV will initially offer bundled solutions for up to 80% of the process required in decommissioning an oil field. The bundled solutions will, in addition to project management, cover work scopes such as plug and abandonment of wells, towage of floating units and removal of subsea infrastructure. In the longer term, the JV plans to provide the full end-to-end process of decommissioning.