Joined expertise to focus on subsea EPCI contracts
Technip, the French engineering company, and Heerema Marine Contractors, the Netherlands-based offshore contracting and services company, have signed a global alliance to join their respective expertise on the ultra deep water business.
Home-based in Paris, France, Technip is one of the largest engineering company in the world with 32,000 employees.
With many proprietary licences, Technip covers all the upstream and downstream activities.
In the exploration and production Technip is acting subsea, onshore and offshore providing all the engineering activities:
– Conceptual studies
– Project management consultancy
– Front end engineering and design (FEED)
– Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC)
– Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Installation (EPCI)
Technip supports its subsea and offshore operations with a fleet of 29 vessels and 5 more in progress.
In its side Heerema is specialized in providing offshore field development services such as, transport, installation or removal of offshore floating structures, subsea pipeline and infrastructure.
Heerema executes these operations in shallow water, deep water and ultra deep waters.
Heerema is integrated from the design to the full completion of the transportation and installation operations, including engineering, logistic, and project management all over the world.
With three of the largest crane vessels in the world, Heerema operates one of the most powerful fleet designed to work in deep water and harsh environments.
This heavy lift and motion equipment and decades of experience in most demanding conditions have built Heerema’s market leadership in the deep and ultra deep offshore market.
Heerama and Technip signed five-years contract
For years Heerema and Technip work in offshore business in their respective markets in shallow water first, then in deep water, now in ultra deep water.
By deep water the oil and gas companies are considering fields where the seabed is between 1000 meters and 2000 meters depth.
To renew the maturing fields in shallow or deep water, the oil and gas companies are exploring in ultra deep water, beyond 2000 meters depth such as in Brazil, Gulf of Mexico, North Sea.
Deeper goes the exploration and production more it costs and exposes at risks.
The oil and gas industry is organized by project, evaluating the capital expenditure and their pay-back per project.
With the escalation of the costs in ultra deep water, very few projects are large enough to afford the technologies it requests, thus preventing the investments required to really develop new solutions.
In this context, the companies willing to perform in ultra deep water market needs to think beyond the project and build long term partnerships to invest wisely in the future technologies and equipment.
The longer distance from shore, the complexity of the reservoirs, the high temperature and pressure of the hydrocarbon and the concentration of corrosive additives of the deep and ultra water fields leads the companies to use longer and heavier pipeline at the limit of the existing pipe-tensioning and pipe-lay vessels.
With a pipeline market expected to grow by 15% per year until 2017 in the ultra deep offshore market, Technip and Heerema intend to align and optimize their respective assets in offering the most competitive solutions and set the conditions to invest in more capacities and heavier capabilities.
Through this five-years exclusive agreement, Technip and Heerema target Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Installation (EPCI) contracts in the subsea market.
They will put a special attention to the ultra deep water projects requiring intensive lifting and tensioning capabilities.
In practice, Technip and Heerema will bid together in these demanding ultra deep water projects in expecting to consolidate their respective market leadership well supported by one of the largest portfolio of tensioning, lifting and laying vessels.
