Technip and Heerema Marine Contractors have signed a worldwide alliance agreement designed to capitalise in the fast-growing global subsea oil and gas market.
Their primary target is ultra-deepwater projects as this is expected to be the fastest growing part of the subsea market over the next several years. For example, ultra-deepwater infield pipelines are forecast to grow at more than 15% per annum between 2012 and 2017.
In essence, these two heavyweights of the subsea and offshore construction world will pool their capabilities and “complementary assets”.
The five-year alliance agreement particularly addresses the ultra-deepwater EPCI (engineering, procurement, construction and installation) projects in all subsea markets requiring substantial tensioning capability.
Technip and Heerema teams are already being brought together to enable implementation and the expectation is that the two companies will bid together on several major projects in the years to come.
Heerema’s Pieter Heerema and Technip’s Thierry Pilenko said that both companies clearly had distinguished track records and long-term relationships with clients. They hope to reinforce these as a result of closer co-operation than hitherto.
“Together, we will provide them with unrivalled capabilities for execution in harsh, ultra-deepwater environments, enabling them to bring these promising reservoirs into production,” they said.
“In this framework, we expect to participate actively in the growing number of major new subsea EPCI projects currently being tendered, whose offshore installation phases are generally in 2015 and beyond.”
Technip added that the alliance will further its strategic objective to broaden its portfolio of capabilities in subsea, building on its capex programme and last year’s acquisition of Global Industries to cover environments from ultra-deepwater to shore.
The alliance also fulfils the company’s near-term requirements for high-tension vessel capabilities.
Technip is best known for its large fleet of subsea construction vessels, including dive-support ships and pipelayers. Heerema also operates deepwater construction tonnage; it also owns heavy-lift semi-submersibles like the Thialf.
Both continue to invest in new tonnage.