Gene Kliewer • Houston
Petrobras orders 111 Cameron subsea trees
Cameron has a frame agreement valued at some $500 million to supply subsea trees and related running tools for Petrobras use in developments offshore Brazil.
Under the agreement, Cameron will provide 138 subsea trees, with the installation to be supported by 18 sets of running tools that are also part of the scope of supply. Initial delivery is slated to begin in 2011, with deliveries to continue for four years.
As a part of this agreement, Cameron also has received a purchase order contract for the first 111 subsea trees. Deliveries under this initial order are to begin in 1Q 2011 and continue until 1Q 2014.
ROVs go to Marin Mätteknik
Sub-Atlantic Ltd. has completed delivery of two Mohican ROVs to Swedish-based Marin Mätteknik AB in a deal worth £750,000 ($1.2 million).
The Mohicans will be deployed aboard theMV IceBeam, a 40 m (131 ft) survey/ROV vessel and will target a variety of tasks including seabed and pipeline surveys.
“We choose the Mohican because its combination of high thruster power, maneuverability, and suitable size which allows swift and reliable under water inspections,” says Olof Nilsson, sales and marketing.
The Mohican ROV is equipped with unique Dynamic Vectoring capabilities allied to the subCAN control system, providing a stable observation, survey, and light intervention platform. It also is being upgraded with a survey package including multibeam and side scan sonar.
FMC acquiresMulti Phase Meters AS
FMC Technologies Inc. has acquired Multi Phase Meters AS in Stavanger, Norway. MPM develops and manufactures multiphase flow meters. FMC intends to acquire 100% of MPM with an initial cash payment of $30 million and two earn-out payments based on future earnings.
MPM produces high accuracy, self-calibrating multiphase meters with low maintenance features for subsea as well as topside applications.
“By expanding our product offering through MPM’s advanced multiphase flow meters, FMC will be able to further optimize its subsea technologies and therefore bring significant value to our customers,” says Peter D. Kinnear, FMC’s chairman, president and CEO.
“We are pleased to become part of FMC Technologies and believe that the combination will further advance our product lines and solutions for a global set of oil and gas customers,” says Hans Olav Hide, CEO of MPM.
FMC opens new global technology center: In other news, FMC is expanding its R&D network with a new Global Technology Center in Houston. The building will house product technical management teams and core technology groups required to design and verify deepwater equipment.
“It’s an important step that FMC has taken to invest in the future through continued technology development,” says Brad Beitler, director of Technology for FMC’s Energy Production Systems. “Developing our products and systems with direct input from our customers has been, and will continue to be, one of the keys to our success.”
Specialist teams in this location will support developments related to high-pressure/high-temperature reservoirs and ultra deepwater fields. In addition, the Center will serve as FMC’s global hub to develop concepts and hardware to reduce the total cost of oil and gas field ownership during a producing field life.
GE opens new SmartCenter subsea monitoring facility
A new Subsea Monitoring and Remote Technology Center is open now in Nailsea, UK, says GE Oil & Gas.
Located at GE Oil & Gas, Drilling and Production’s VetcoGray subsea controls manufacturing site in Nailsea, the new SmartCenter is a remote-access data hub connected to subsea field control and instrumentation facilities around the world. The state-of-the-art facility offers assistance and services to the field from installation and commissioning, through field start up, and onwards into routine operation for operational support, condition monitoring, diagnostics, and production optimization.
Subsea 7 to lay Australian pipeline
Santos Ltd. has contracted Subsea 7 to install a 22 km (13.7 mi) long, 12-in (30.5-cm) rigid pipeline to connect the subsea production trees at Henry-2 and Netherby offshore Victoria, Australia, in the Casino-Henry field.
The scope of work includes four rigid spools and installation of an electro-hydraulic umbilical from Casino-4 to Pecten East.
Work is scheduled to begin immediately at Subsea 7’s Singapore office. Offshore operations are expected to kick-off by year-end using theSeven Navica pipelay/construction vessel and the Rockwater 2 diving support vessel.
Douglas-Westwood forecasts ROV spend. Annual oil and gas industry expenditure on work-class ROVs is likely to reach $3.2 billion by 2014 – with African and Asia Pacific expenditure overtaking that of Western Europe. This comes from the new edition of “The World ROV Market Report 2010-14,” by energy business analysts Douglas-Westwood. The study shows that the worldwide ROV business has been impacted by the economic downturn, but not as much as many other oil and gas services. It suggests that growth prospects are high, predicting 547 more work-class ROVs will be needed between 2010 and 2014.
