Denmark promoting its skills in floating production, decommissioning
Denmark’s offshore industry does not often hit the international headlines, but it is no laggard in terms of offshore expertise. Despite the comparatively small size of the country’s service and supply sector, it has leading technology to offer in a number of key areas.
Mogens Tofte Koch, general manager and director of the Danish Marine and Offshore Group (DMOG).
So says Mogens Tofte Koch, general manager and director of the Danish Marine and Offshore Group (DMOG), which he founded in 2001. Many of the 85 member companies have strong links with the shipping and shipbuilding sectors, from which they have made a natural progression to the offshore sector.
Tofte Koch is also the managing director of Offshore Denmark, which organizes Danish pavilions at international oil and gas exhibitions such as OTC, Offshore Europe, and ONS, as well as events in the Middle East and Far East.
A growing number of companies take advantage of these opportunities.
“Several dozen companies now come along,” says Tofte Koch. “I think Danish companies are getting more eager to present themselves at exhibitions.”
Several smaller suppliers have received the encouraging feedback that they have good products at fair prices.
One of the areas in which Danish companies have a special expertise is FPSO conversion and outfitting, including activities such as design and engineering services, turret fabrication, and riser design and supply.
Denmark is home to leading FPSO operator Maersk Contractors, which owns seven units and operates others. Its current projects include Marathon’sAlvheim FPSO in the Norwegian sector. Maersk managed the vessel conversion and will operate the unit following startup this summer. It is also handling conversion of an FPSO for Woodside’s Vincent field off western Australia.
DMOG has organized two meetings for its members aimed at expanding the net of suppliers to main FPSO contractors. At the most recent, last November, presentations were given by:
- FORCE Technology, which provides integrity management services
- Ramboll Oil & Gas, which in February was awarded a contract by Samsung Heavy Industries for the detailed engineering and design of a generic FPSO for Nexus Floating Production
- F A Müggler Service, a construction company specializing in FPSO turrets
- NKT Flexibles, a leading supplier of flexible pipelines and risers.
Another area in which the Danish supply sector is particularly strong is platform modification. Tofte Koch cites Esbjerg Oilfield Services, which recently supplied a new production platform to Maersk Oil and Gas and is busy with manufacturing, rig repair and maintenance assignments on several Danish oil and gas fields. The company recently merged with Semco Maritime.
Strengthening platform legs is one of Densit’s specialties. Using Ducorit high-strength grout, the company increased the load-bearing capacity of Dong’s Siri platform in the Danish sector by almost 50%.
HSE services are another area of Danish expertise. One of the leading companies is standby specialist Esvagt, part of the A P Møller-Maersk group. Esvagt recently signed letters of intent with Statoil to provide two newbuild emergency response vessels for the Norwegian sector.
One of two newbuild emergency response vessels that Esvagt will operate on Statoil’s behalf.
Denmark also wants to promote itself as a center for environmentally sustainable decommissioning technology, Tofte Koch says. A two-day conference on this theme will be held in Esbjerg on October 11-12. Eventually there will be a substantial domestic market, comprising some 50 platforms that will need to be removed. An interesting assignment for the Frigg decommissioning project in Norway has been won by fabrication company Bladt Industries, which under contract to Aker Kvaerner Offshore Partner is to build four buoyancy tanks with total weight of 4,000 tonnes (4,409 tons), to be used for jacket refloating.
Danish suppliers are becoming increasingly active on the world market, not least thanks to the helping hand they receive from the larger companies such as Maersk Contractors and oil company Maersk Oil. These two companies, both part of the A P Møller-Maersk group, have developed extensive international portfolios.
Maersk Oil recently contracted Ramboll to provide design and engineering support for the $5-billion Al Shaheen offshore development in Qatar. Several DMOG member companies exhibited in a Danish pavilion at the Doha IPTC show in Qatar in November 2005. “A lot of companies reported making good contacts,” says Tofte Koch. “Maersk helped to lift us up.”
Good relations with Denmark’s neighbor Norway also help. Over the years many Danish suppliers have regularly delivered goods and services to leading Norwegian contractors such as Aker Kvaerner, FMC Kongsberg Subsea and Aibel and Vetco Gray, the successors of the former Vetco International group.
Along with the supplier community in general, Danish suppliers are thriving on the strong level of demand in offshore markets around the world. The same is true of the domestic market, where Tofte Koch says he has never seen the level of activity so high. Various development projects are underway and exploration has been given a boost by the award of 14 new licenses in 2006, and a further three so far this year.
As elsewhere, the sector is having difficulty recruiting enough engineers and other qualified staff. Industry bodies now actively promote careers in oil and gas among students, and hold promotional workshops to which potential employees from abroad, and especially Germany, are invited.
