Contract wins

The Leman compression module at HSM Offshore, Schiedam. Photos from HSM Offshore.

HSM Offshore has added new contracts to its order book, but more could be done by the industry to reduce costs and more efficiently use assets, Business Development Manager Jaco Fleumer says.

HSM Offshore had a busy year last year—and the company is looking to repeat the trend this year after two new contract wins.

The first is an engineering, procurement, construction, and installation contract with Chevron Exploration and Production Netherlands for the A18 gas production platform, with delivery due in summer 2015 from HSM’s Schiedam premises.

The platform will be part of Chevron Exploration and Production Netherlands’ A/B Blocks shallow gas development, in the northern section of the Dutch Continental Shelf, about 260km north of Den Helder, in 44m water depth.

HSM’s scope includes a three-level, 35m-long, 25-wide, 20m-high topside, with accommodation for eight people and a helideck, a 60m-high jacket, and four skirt piles. The total weight will be about 3000-tonne.

Maximum gas production capacity will be 70MMscf/d from three wells, with gas exported to the A12 production platform via a 12in. pipeline.

HSM will carry out detailed engineering, procurement, fabrication, pre-commissioning, load-out, transport, installation and hook-up. The contract with Chevron comes after HSM successfully delivered and installed the B13 platform for the same development.

The firm was also awarded an 1800-tonne process module contract by Aker Solutions’ Aberdeen-based subsidiary Aker Offshore Partner for the Flyndre/Cawdor fields. It will be installed on the Talisman-operated Clyde platform, in the UK North Sea, with delivery due in early summer next year.

The Leman jacket load out.

The contracts follow a busy 2013, Jaco Fleumer, HSM’s business development manager, says. In 2013, the company completed the fabrication, load-out, and sea-fastening of well protector platform L5a-D (topside and jacket) and the 1240-tonne D18-A (Orca) topsides. Both normally unmanned, platforms, built for GDF Suez E&P for the Dutch sector, comprise gas treatment, export facilities and support systems for the production and transport of reservoir gasses and fluids.

HSM also completed a 1650-tonne compression module for Talisman Energy’s UK Claymore platform, and a wellhead platform and hang-off module for the Conwy field, in the east Irish Sea, installed on the Douglas platform (comprising 850-tonne topside module, 690-tonne jacket, and 700-tonne of piles) and a 270-tonne reception module, for EOG Resources in the East Irish Sea.

More recently, HSM completed work on a compression platform for Shell’s Leman field. The topside, weighing 4000-tonne, is one of the firm’s largest project to date. The project includes a connecting bridge, to the Leman A complex, and a four-legged jacket.

The platform contains a two-stage low-pressure and a one-stage high-pressure gas compressor, both gas turbine driven, with ancillaries, including scrubbers, coolers, and fuel gas treatment.

The topsides were loaded out of the production hall in early March and pre-commissioning works starting before load out by barge last month (July). Heerema Marine Contractors has the contract for transport and installation.

Fleumer expects more brownfield work to come. “We see brownfield projects happening, as well as relatively small developments around existing assets, including subsea developments, with tie-ins to host platforms. These can mean the need for new, pre-commissioned modules, to allow the host platform’s production to continue. There are also some accommodation projects on the horizon, where existing facilities are not able to meet today’s accommodation needs.”

But, he says, there have been delays. Projects are taking longer to be finalized and clients are reviewing costs, both with partners and governments. In the UK, there are projects being discussed, but contracts will not likely be signed until next year, he says.

One way to help reduce costs would be to involve suppliers early in the process, he says. “Development concepts which consider the transport and installation can be designed to find alternatives to using large crane vessels—but the design needs to take that into consideration.” Platforms could also then be easier to decommission.

“There is also a focus on platforms that can be reused,” he says. “If they have a field life of 7-10 years, they could be used for another field. But, they need to be designed with that in mind. If you look at the late-life situation in the North Sea, making facilities re-usable and unmanned, and reducing decommissioning costs, is important.”