Maersk Oil North Sea Hires Harkand for Subsea Inspection

Harkand, the international subsea inspection, repair, maintenance (IRM) and light construction group, has secured a contract with Maersk Oil North Sea Ltd.

It will see the DP2 multi-purpose vessel the Relume deployed to conduct subsea inspection of the operator’s floating production units and floating production storage and offloading assets, as well as all subsea infrastructure including pipelines, umbilicals and structures across the Dumbarton, Gryphon, Janice and Leadon assets.

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Harkand’s operating centre in Aberdeen will execute the contract which is scheduled to commence operations in summer 2013 with work due to take 2-3 months to complete.

David Kerr, managing director for Europe with Harkand ISS said: “We have had a very successful start to the year, winning a clutch of significant new contracts which justify our confidence in both our customers’ appetite for modern, high quality and cost effective tonnage and the huge growth in the global IRM market.

“This new contract recognises the continued investment in people and assets we have made in recent months and our capability to deliver significant IRM support to some of the world’s best known oil and gas operators.”

Market analysts predict the IRM vessel market is set to be worth $7.5bn by 2016 thanks to the magnitude and age of the global subsea infrastructure.

Harkand aims to become a leading global name in subsea inspection, repair and maintenance focused on attaining the highest standards in health, safety, quality and environmental performance along with first class project execution.

Launched in February 2013 through the merger of Iremis, Integrated Subsea Services (ISS) and Andrews Survey following investment by Oaktree Capital Management, the company employs over 750 people at bases in Aberdeen in the UK, Dubai in the Middle East; and Singapore and Perth in Asia Pacific and aims to grow turnover to $1 billion in the next five years.

The group recently announced it was investing around $30million (£20million GBP) in expanding its global fleet of remotely operated vehicle systems to support its ambitious growth strategy. The move will see Harkand extend its ROV fleet by 25% and create 30 new full time jobs as it positions itself for capitalising on projected growth in the inspection, repair and maintenance market.