CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK LLOYDS LIST SECTION: Focus PAGE: 6 DATE: 4, September, 2007 TIME: $hour $minute VERSION: 1

6 Focus Offshore Vessels Lloyd’s List TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2007 A solution Support for stranded gas fields

DUTCH ship designer Sea of Solutions has developed a specialised fluid carrying ves- vessel sel to enable oil companies to develop stranded gas fields. The subsidiary of Offshore Ship Design- ers has designed a gas carrier that has a long coiled pipeline instead of storage for liquefied natural gas, so it could sail from a field to any terminal as a shuttle tanker. rates set Sea of Solutions believes the concept is technically feasible and the cost is low enough to allow its use in remote gas field projects. Known as a coiled natural gas carrier, the design is being launched at this year’s Offshore Europe exhibition in Aberdeen, to tumble starting today. Sea of Solutions believes an oil com- pany could order a CNG carrier instead of Analysts warn of oversupply as orders pour in building a long-distance gas pipeline or a hugely expensive LNG plant. Untreated natural gas could be pro- Martyn Wingrove “The real impact of newbuild contract- duced from a reservoir by subsea wells ing on day rates is yet to be seen and will directly into the ship’s coiled pipes and greatly depend on the number of vessels shipped to an onshore reception facility THE global offshore support vessels mar- which will retire from the market,” said without the need for offshore processing ket will become oversupplied and charter DVB in its latest report. “Most of the exist- infrastructure. rates will fall, despite growing demand ing fleet was built during the last building “The advantage of this concept is that from deepwater operations, say analysts. boom in the early 1980s. the investment is in the vessel itself and is With a total fleet orderbook of 586 off- “The oversupply of vessels built during not related to a specific offshore field,” shore support vessels, there is likely to be that period has only been utilised to near said Nick Wessels, a design engineer with good availability of ships for term and spot capacity three times since,” the analysts Sea of Solutions. charters from next year. said. “It is an attractive means to develop Analysts at DVB Group Research Since the third quarter of 2004, the off- fields for which production rate or total believe it is only a matter of time before shore support vessel fleet has been oper- reserve volumes cannot be easily esti- the high dayrates experienced in support ating close to full capacity and charter mated.” vessel markets over the last three years rates have been higher than historic levels. The carrier is designed to cope with come under pressure from a surge in new The growing trend to explore for and unprocessed gas, which includes meth- tonnage. develop deepwater oil and gas fields has ane, besides heavier gas liquids such as There seems to be no let-up in the driven shipowners to order new vessels, ethane, propane and butane. ordering of new anchor handling tug sup- which can operate in water depths to The coiled pipe design avoids the need ply and platform supply vessels as 122 4,000 m. for large complex pressure vessels that ships have been added to the global Around half of the anchor handling would otherwise need to be built into the orderbook in the last six months. fleet, but less than 400 PSVs, are capable of ship. According to DVB, there are around operating in deepwaters so there is still Sea of Solutions has created an opti- 3,613 offshore support vessels operating room for the more advanced newbuilds. mum vessel design to load around 515m worldwide, of which 1,582 are anchor It is in the deepwater markets — US cu ft of saleable gas in 218 km of coiled handlers and the rest are PSVs. Gulf of Mexico, Brazil and West Africa — pipelines. This would represent between There are 376 anchor handlers and 210 and in the harsh environments found off two and five days of production from a PSVs on order for delivery between 2007 northern Europe, where the highest char- reasonably sized gas field. and 2012. ter dayrates are secured. This would require a 240 m long ship, DVB notes that there has been a rush in DVB said the US Gulf of Mexico is the which will store the gas at 130 bar and at orders for new anchor handlers in the last busiest supply vessel market in the world, temperatures derived from using seawater six months, with 104 booked for delivery but it is highly competitive. as a coolant. The ship could have a transit to 2012 by owners who feel the market will More than half of the region’s hydrocar- speed of 15 knots between a field and the continue to be strong. bon production comes from deepwater terminal. facilities, which require greater logistic There are plenty of stranded gas fields support than the shallow water platforms. around the world where oil companies In the US, anchor handling vessels that have been searching for oil instead. Many are rated more than 8,000 bhp can com- are not large enough to make building mand spot rates of $75,000 and large PSVs thousand of miles of pipeline or an LNG have been earning $15,000 a day, said plant economically feasible. DVB. Anchor handlers working in West Africa are gaining term charter dayrates of $30,000 and those rated more than 10,000 bhp may get up to $70,000. News in brief Get the latest news from According to Aberdeen brokers, anchor Offshore Europe at handlers working in the UK are securing dayrates of £75,000 ($150,000) this week as In demand: Offshore support vessels such as Grampian Commander in Aberdeen Conversion for FPS www.llolydslist.com nearly all the available fleet is booked up. are securing high-term charter rates. FPS OCEAN has secured a $50m loan from DVB Bank and Eksportfinans to fund the conversion of shuttle tanker Laurita into floating production storage Global goes for SOS heavylift and offloading vessel Deep Producer 1. Norsk Hydro may get The vessel is being converted in the Mid- dle East and could be available in the second quarter of next year. FPS has also Mariner back on track acquired aframax tanker Semakau Spirit to convert it into another FPSO in Dubai Drydocks early next year. DEVELOPMENT of the Mariner heavy oil Resources’ ownership in the Balmoral field in the UK North Sea may be back on production semi-submersible and related SeaBird vessel sale after Norsk Hydro acquired a controlling fields to reduce operating costs for its SEABIRD Exploration has sold the Raven stake in the field and the nearby Bressay Brenda-Nicol project, which is tied to Explorer for $17m after studies showed heavy oil discovery, writes Martyn these facilities. the vessel could not be converted into a Wingrove. Oilexco is paying $50m to CNR and pro- shallow water seismic acquisition vessel. Hydro hopes to use its experience in the viding a security credit of $63m for the The Norwegian contractor is looking for Norwegian sector, where it is producing decommissioning costs to the production another offshore support vessel which more than 100,000 barrels a day from the unit and subsea infrastructure. could be used for this purpose. SeaBird Grane heavy oilfield, and on the Peregrino Oilexco will own 78% in the floating expects to have its next vessel in opera- project in Brazil to develop Mariner and production unit and the Balmoral field, tion this month as the Harrier Explorer is possibly Bressay. plus 85% in Glamis and 69% in Sterling. finishing sea trials before it starts a four- The Oslo-listed company, which is sell- The Balmoral, Glamis and Sterling year contract with Petroleum GeoServ- ing the energy business to state organisa- fields are producing around 2,000 barrels ices as a seismic source vessel. tion Statoil, will be buying a 64.6% operat- a day, but Brenda can pump out around ing interest in the Bressay discovery and 30,000 bpd so it provides the bulk of the Amec joint venture 45% in the Mariner field from US oil major area’s liquids. AMEC has formed a joint venture with Chevron. “This is a strategic core area for us MMC Oil & Gas of Malaysia to work “Hydro has been looking for areas within the UK central North Sea,” said together on engineering for large deep- where our heavy oil experience could be a Oilexco’s president Arthur Millholland. water projects in southeast Asia. The way of increasing commerciality of new “Having majority ownership of the Bal- head office in Kuala Lumpur will become fields,” said the company’s head of inter- moral floating production unit will allow one of Amec’s global engineering hubs. national business development Torgeir us to maximise operations and increase its The company will target a growing Kydland. throughput.” number of deepwater projects in Asia, GLOBAL Industries has ordered a new inches in diameter and have a 400- “These prospects are near to our home Also in Britain, Petrofac Energy and Val- including those off Borneo. Sea of Solutions-designed pipelaying tonne deep water lowering capacity. ground and what we have learnt from the iant Petroleum have swapped assets to and heavylift vessel from Keppel Sing- Sea of Solutions teamed up with development and production at Grane has accelerate development of two northern Vroon’s new arrival marine to capitalise on growing Vuyk Engineering to design the topside proven useful also in the development North Sea fields. DUTCH shipping company Vroon Group demand for offshore construction work. systems. The vessel will be propelled by work at Peregrino.” Petrofac has exchanged its 29% interest has taken delivery of its latest diving sup- This is the third newbuild heavylift two 4,500 kW propulsion thrusters pro- Chevron was considering a develop- in the Crawford field to Valiant in port vessel, VOS Satisfaction, from ABG design ordered from Sea of Solutions viding speed of 15 knots. There will also ment involving a fixed steel platform on exchange for a 3% stake in the West Don Shipyard of India. ABG is building this year as it has provided work for a be five retractable thrusters of 2,400 kW Mariner but decided to chase more lucra- area. another two vessels for Vroon for deliv- Nordic Heavy Lift vessel and one for each and an 800 kW tunnel thruster. tive projects in the West of Shetlands area Under the agreement Petrofac will hold ery in 2008 and 2009. VOS Satisfaction Larsen & Troubro. Global Industries has expanded its instead. an operating interest of 27.7% in West has Wärtsilä engines and a four-point The Global 1200 vessel will be a operations out of its home US market Italian company Eni and London-listed Don, which is a potential subsea develop- mooring system supplied by Kongsberg. dynamically positioned combined der- and needs new capacity to tackle the independent Nautical Petroleum are part- ment, to a nearby production platform. rick and pipelay ship with a 1,200 tonne larger deepwater projects being devel- ners in Mariner, while OMV of Austria is The operation of Crawford will be man- lifting capacity and is scheduled for oped by the oil majors. involved in the Mariner East oil discovery aged by Fairfield Energy, which plans to Offshore Vessels appears delivery in April 2010. It recently upgraded its existing and Shell has a stake in Bressay. drill an appraisal well soon. every Tuesday, edited by The 162 m vessel will have an pipelaying derrick barge Hercules and Mariner has been thoroughly appraised “A draft field development plan was AmClyde single post crane on the aft catamaran crane vessel Titan II to and holds more than 50m barrels. Nauti- submitted for the Don Southwest field in Martyn Wingrove for surface and subsea construction undertake larger offshore projects. It cal is keen to develop it and plans to drill May and we continue to make good [email protected] work and a specialised pipelaying has also leased multi service vessels a nearby exploration well soon. progress towards submitting a draft plan 020 7017 4629 stringer on the aft. REM Fortress and REM Commander in Meanwhile, Calgary independent for West Don,” said Petrofac’s chief execu- www.lloydslist.com/energy It will be able to lay pipe of up to 60 India and the Gulf of Mexico. Oilexco has acquired Canadian Natural tive Amjad Bseisu.