Scotland’s offshore industry is raising the bar for innovation and health and safety in the global oil and gas field, a top boss in the supply chain says.
Speaking last night on the eve of Offshore Europe (OE) 2013 in Aberdeen, Technip’s Knut Boe told the Press and Journal significant challenges lay ahead in the UK North Sea as operators seek oil in harder-to-reach places, but he added that the area had a bright future.
Mr Boe is senior vice-president of Technip’s North Sea/Canada arm, which undertakes subsea engineering and construction projects in the UK, Norway, eastern Canada and north Russia.
He said the North Sea was home to one of the most vibrant subsea sectors in the world, with Aberdeen playing a key role for the sector globally.
Skills shortages threatened to constrain growth but the area’s reputation for revolutionary new technology and a strong focus on safety bode well for the future.
Mr Boe added: “Looking forward is always difficult, however, I am confident there will still be a significant and important business in oil and gas in this region.
“Moving into deeper, harsher environments will pose a number of demanding and interesting challenges, which should continue to make us an attractive industry for people to join.”
The North Sea has seen a big increase in investment in recent years as companies seek to further develop oil and gas reserves.
With OE celebrating its 40th anniversary in Aberdeen, expectations are high that exploration and production in the area will remain at current levels for some time.
Technip, which supports major energy infrastructure projects globally, delivering pipelay, umbilical lay and subsea engineering as well as construction packages, aims to remain at the forefront of oil and gas activity in the region.
The French company’s UK operating centre at Westhill, near Aberdeen, employs more than 1,000 people and is home to Technip’s global vessel management division.
Technip also has a spoolbase at Evanton, on the Cromarty Firth, which has benefited from significant investment over the past five years.
Both sites are helping to deliver the massive £500million Quad 204 deepwater project for BP.
Quad 204 involves the redevelopment of the Schiehallion field, 110 miles west of the Shetland, where the existing production facility is being replaced with a new purpose-built floating production vessel and subsea infrastructure.
It is hoped the work will unlock an additional 450million barrels of hydrocarbons and extend production through to 2035. Mr Boe said: “The Quad 204 project is a great example of the type of new, complex and challenging projects that demand and drive innovation in terms of technological development and project delivery.”
Buoyant market conditions are driving innovation like this and encouraging firms in the supply chain to work together, he said. “In the UK sector of the North Sea and west of Shetland in particular, operators have changed to become much more supportive and open to new solutions and technology.”
Most new fields in the UK are likely to be developed as subsea tiebacks to existing infrastructure, increasing demand for expertise and equipment, he said.
He added: “A good example of this is Total’s Islay project, where we delivered the first reeled, trace-heated pipe-in-pipe system that enabled production from an otherwise inaccessible field.
“We see a lot of opportunities for this technology worldwide.”
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