Maritime Industrial Services makes Middle East history

MIS shipyard in Sharjah.

The Super M2 design is an enhanced version of the L780 Mod 11, of which 35 units were built and are operating worldwide. The rigs will be ABS-classed and will be suitable for operations in all non-harsh environment areas of the world.

Booming production

The Middle East has witnessed increased demand for production and MIS, which currently has a shipyard in Sharjah and has invested heavily in the local infrastructure, is benefiting from the shortage in capacity in the traditional international shipyards in areas such as Singapore, China, and the US Gulf Coast.

MIS offers its customers delivery time and proximity to the end users of the rigs. Due to a capacity shortage at other yards in the region, getting a new rig built at another location may take up to several years, MIS says.

“In addition, MIS’ close proximity to the world’s major oil reserves in the Middle East area drastically reduces the delivery and out-of-service time from the yard to the end user and the cost of transportation of the rig,” says Jerry Smith, managing director of MIS.

Smith adds that the location of MIS in the UAE offers access to qualified labor and staff, a weather advantage (notwithstanding the two to three months of extreme hot weather in the summer) for available work days per year and unique location to access the worldwide supply chain for materials and equipment to build the rigs.

The Sharjah Marine Yard is in the deepwater area of Port Khalid, with available berthing frontage, affording the docking of ships, deep draft marine vessels, and offshore drilling rigs. The facility has approximately 200,000 sq m (2.2 million sq ft) of open production area; 25,000 sq m (270,000 sq ft) of open storage area, complete with a covered Tool Store and Project Warehouse; and several covered production areas and offices.

TheSeaWolf Ortisetimyein is expected to be delivered in this month to SeaWolf Oilfield Services Ltd.

The production areas include a 3,000 sq m (32,000 sq ft) fabrication shop, complete with overhead cranes, plate rolling, bending, pressing, shearing, cutting, welding, and other metal work equipment. The production area also has open and table fabrication areas with access to gantry and mobile cranes, as well as manual, semi-automatic, and automatic welding facilities, and support facilities, hydrotest facilities, an instrumentation and calibration shop, Wheelabrator shotblast unit, and a completely enclosed blasting and painting building.

The increased offshore jackup drilling rig business for MIS in the market has seen the company expand to a 5,000-strong operation in the Middle East.

Drilling rig trends

The requirement for drilling rigs is growing at a healthy rate due to oil and gas demand, Smith says, adding the current fundamentals driving rig building and maintenance services point to an attractive market for years to come.

“Some new-build jackup rigs are coming to the Middle East market, but most of the larger jackups are not needed in the Gulf area where the demand is strongest,” Smith says. “Therefore, the area is being served with the existing fleet which has an average age of 25-30 years. Consequently, the market demand for rig maintenance services requires existing providers to expand their capacity. Further, most clients prefer a new-build, even at a higher price, since the drilling technology and capability is greatly enhanced over the older rigs.”

MIS also participates in shallow water production facilities. It builds new offshore and onshore oil and gas production facilities, and their components such as pressure vessels, modules, and topsides. They also build and supply mobile offshore production units (MOPUs) where they think the market demand will increase due to availability of vessels, as some of the older drilling rigs are taken out of service, and increased costs and delivery time of new EPC projects for oil and gas production facilities.

Refurbishments

MIS has been in the rig refurbishment business since it opened in 1979.

“Rig refurbishment is currently one of MIS’ key business lines and it has covered a diverse range of refurbishment of land and offshore drilling rigs which serve the needs of clients such as Transocean, Arabian Drilling, Saipem, Ensco, Nabors, and, most recently, Thule Drilling,” Smith says.

Future plans

MIS plans to expand both through organic growth as well as acquisitions which will enable MIS to increase its capacity to handle a large number of projects in oil and gas fabrication, construction, and services, and specifically in the two business lines of rig new-build and rig refurbishment. MIS predicts the future for Middle East offshore drilling to continue to flourish.

“The Middle East will always rank high in the capacity of the world’s onshore and offshore oil and gas producers,” Smith says. “Growth is expected to continue due to the increasing worldwide demand for new oil and gas field developments and increasing maintenance of current producing fields. The fundamentals are very healthy with these drivers in-place and the cost per barrel of Middle East oil is still one of the lowest in the world which will result in increased drilling for several years in the future.”

Safety standards

Health, safety, and environment (HSE) management is a priority at MIS. The HSE department is equipped with all modern facilities to maintain high safety standard in the company. It is MIS’ HSE policy that all personnel prior to start of work should undergo the safety induction program and the “preventive” training. Apart from this, MIS also provides its employees with in-house training related to their jobs and in accordance with the client requirements. These include scaffolding safety training, rigger training, fire fighting, and personal protective equipment training. The MIS HSE management system is approved by the British Safety Council, and the company has received numerous awards.

Jerry Smith is managing director, on the board of MIS. Previously president and CEO of MIS, he was responsible for all operations and functions of MIS and for the management of all fabrication and onshore construction, engineering, project management, H2S and safety services, instrumentation, special tools services, and all other MIS activities. Smith became MIS’ managing director when the company was publicly listed in 2007, and today focuses on growing the MIS Group both organically and through acquisitions.