McDermott International has been awarded a fabrication contract for components of a deepwater platform in the Gulf of Mexico by Heerema Marine Contractors Nederland BV.

The contractor will construct 16 tendon buoyancy modules (TBMs) for the project, which will be used during offshore installation of the platform in water depths of up to 5,185ft (1,580m). McDermott will carry out procurement, fabrication and loadout of the TBM structures from its Morgan City facility in LA. Consisting of an upper and lower module, each TBM is designed to be interchangeable as either an upper or a lower module.

Fabrication work is expected to start during second quarter of this year.

Another McDermott subsidiary was also awarded a design, engineering and procurement management contract, this time from VAALCO Gabon Inc. for the Etame platform, and a design engineering contract for a potential Etame/North Tch ibala platform, both offshore Gabon, West Africa. The new wellhead production platform(s) will be in the Etame Marin block and will be engineered to produce oil and gas. Detailed engineering is already underway.