International energy service giant Subsea 7 is about to expand its Houston presence.
The company has four vessels based in the region permanently, which will be joined later in the year by flagship vessel the Seven Borealis. There is also a pipeline fabrication spoolbase at Port Isabel, Texas.
Work is progressing on the development of Subsea 7’s new Westgate office development in Houston’s energy corridor.
The complex, expected to be complete in the final quarter of this year, will allow the company to expand locally from 300-plus to about 700 people.
Subsea 7 has a worldwide workforce of more than 14,000 and employs about 1,500 people at Westhill, near Aberdeen, and about 150 at Wick.
Meanwhile, Subsea 7 has been working on what it calls a step-change in technology for the thermal insulation of subsea pipelines.
It has set up an integrated project team in Houston with Noble Energy to work on a trace heating flowline system.
It is for a deepwater subsea field offshore west Africa which would use electrically trace heated pipe-in-pipe technology.
Subsea 7 said it had a track record of advancing pipe-in-pipe technology, with recent advances having been led by Westhill-based technology development director John Mair.
He said: “Over several years, we have undertaken a continuous development programme to bring to the market a step-change in technology for the thermal insulation of subsea pipelines. The growing demand for increased thermal performance requires more advanced pipe-in-pipe systems with, in some cases, electrically induced heating or so-called active heating. Many operators, including majors and independents, are evaluating the potential benefits for their projects.
“We’ve now qualified our technology with DNV in collaboration with development partner ITPInTerPipe and brought to the market the most technically advanced thermally-efficient system.”
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