Whilst market conditions continue to be challenging, we are in a much stronger position than this this time last year. We have experienced steady trading throughout 2017, both in the North Sea and internationally although margins are tighter than they have ever been.
Our traditional field development work is picking up once again, our subsea services are experiencing growth and we have won a number of high profile vibration and renewables contracts. Our relationship with Chiyoda is also opening doors with Japanese clients and specifically the Asian Pacific market. I’m pleased to say that we are now at a stage where we are growing and actively recruiting.
It is really encouraging that our skills for FEED are still being used for North Sea developments.
We adapted our way of working to the ‘new norm’, with our continued focus on delivering maximum value for clients, which has led to us being a trusted partner on many important projects. For example, we have worked closely with Apache on several projects under this new way of working from FEED and detailed design on Beryl to recent subsea scopes on Nevis and Skene.
We have used this difficult period to study and realign our targets while retaining our core capabilities and expertise. Internationally, we recently won a major subsurface contract with Cairn Oil and Gas in India and two Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) contracts for projects in Senegal. We also expect to increase our activity in North Africa and Romania in the coming months.
To accompany our work with late life scopes and decommissioning, we have partnered with Subcon International to deliver Integrated Rigs to Reef (IR2R) decommissioning solutions globally, augmenting and integrating retiring assets into purpose built reefs. This solution provides many benefits to oil and gas operators, governments, local industries, communities and ultimately to the environment. It’s a further example of how we are ‘thinking outside the box’.
Likewise, we have developed our integrity management software tool, XAMIN (Xodus Asset Management and Integrity Network) for all clean energy technologies and extend the functionality to capture and monitor live data from offshore marine renewable assets.
XAMIN was initially developed to provide high-level services for major oil and gas operators in the North Sea and was well received from within the sector. We secured funding from Scottish Enterprise to allow us to gain the insights and feedback from industry to ensure that the product meets the needs of the users. We have been talking with operators and test centres to develop functionality such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS) during this development stage and will continue to do so in the months ahead.
As well as partnering on projects with Scottish Enterprise, we are now members of OGTC and always looking to engage with other businesses and organisations in ways that can be of benefit to the overall industry. We have introduced regular business breakfasts on various topics so be sure to keep an eye out for those too. Our next one will be on decommissioning.
For 2018, it will be challenging and competitive, but there continues to be a steady stream of diverse contract opportunities from front end to late life as well as in the renewables sector. There is a lot to be positive about.
Best wishes to all for a prosperous year ahead!
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