Energy service firms operating in the North Sea need to work more collaboratively to survive in the future, according to the UK chief of Stork Technical Services.
Working together will be the key to success for energy companies going forward, said the firm’s senior vice president for the UK & Africa, Erik-Jan Bijvank.
“Production numbers are going down and costs are going up, that’s the wrong way round,” Bijvank told the Press & Journal.
He said a lack of available bed space offshore and ageing North Sea assets mean service companies need to be more innovative with their contract offerings to operators.
“It would be good to have solutions where we do exactly what is right at the right time. Rather than having a great number of people doing things individually, it’s better to have an integrated plan,” Bijvank said.
He hailed the recent combined contract win with Wood Group to provide specialist support to BG’s Armada, Everest and Lomond assets in the central North Sea, as a game-changer for the company.
The £300million five-year contract, awarded in December 2013, will see Stork provide asset integrity and platform services, while Wood Group will provide engineering support on the platforms.
“An owner of an asset will spend upwards of £30million a year on that asset, and they will do all that through anywhere between 60 and 100 companies. The supply chain is very complex,” Bijvank said.
He said the BG contract was different because it reduced the number of parties involved and approached servicing of offshore assets in an “integrated way with a single purpose in mind”.
“I do believe that the ability to partner will become more important.
“You have to be able to look outside your own back yard, and in the supply chain we need to find new ways of working.”
He said the supply chain needed to find ways to improve the way it managed assets at a lower cost and lower demand on bed space.
His comments come a week after the publication of Sir Ian Wood’s review of UK oil and gas, which calls for greater collaboration.
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