The current project ‘pause’ and over-supply in the crude market has certainly put a damper on some companies’ prospects, but it seems to have sent others out into the market looking for good deals.

Two British engineering houses have snapped up fpso-related assets, presumably to be ready when the upturn comes.

From Australia (RW): Samsung Heavy Industries is planning to focus more on construction of large oil industry-related vessels at its indigenous facilities in South Korea by setting up a new facility elsewhere to handle its lower margin contracts.

Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia are being considered for the new facility and Samsung expects to spend more than A$1bn on a base to be operational by 2017.

Once established, Samsung will concentrate at home on contracts for the oil sector, including oil exploration products and large service and drilling vessels which it regards as higher value operations.

From the North Sea (NT): Job losses are the order of the day across the Norwegian offshore sector, as contractors respond to reduced oil company investments and a weakening oil price.

Down-manning has not reached the end of the road at Statoil, which is reported to be planning to lose another 500 offshore posts, with further land-based jobs also threatened. This week Aibel announced that 230 jobs are due to go, making a total of 710 this year. GE Oil & Gas has also admitted that it is consulting unions on reducing staff levels in its Norwegian oil and gas unit, although it won’t say how many positions are at risk.

(From the Editor: GEOG told SEN this week that it is ‘streamlining our manifolds operations’ with a reorganisation resulting in 125 to 145 employees in Norway to be made redundant. It is also re-locating part of its project organisation based in Norway to join the core team in the UK.)

Multidisciplinary services provider Bilfinger says it will shed 600 jobs by the end of the year due to reduced activity levels on the part of its customers. At Aker Solutions, 530 job cuts are reported, 190 at Western Geco, 130 at FMC and 125 at Subsea 7. Weakening rig demand is resulting in down-manning by drilling contractors with 250 positions cut at North Atlantic Drilling and unspecified numbers also going at Transocean and Odfjell.

Despite the current downturn, companies are still investing in new facilities. Reef Subsea is taking new space at the Port of Blyth in northeast England for a new mob-demob and maintenance facility. Forum Energy Technologies has set up a new multi-million pound European operations centre in the Westhill area of Aberdeen. The big spend is by GE Oil & Gas which is putting up $50mn for a new manufacturing facility in Jacksonville FL which will produce regulators and control valves.

Grouting specialist FoundOcean is forming a new partnership with subsea contractor Ranger Offshore which only just acquired Technip’s diving assets in North America (SEN, 31/13)...Helix Energy Solutions has secured a $250mn credit facility to help fund the building of its new well intervention semi Q5000 (29/17)...DNV GL is putting together a new subsea team, headed up by Martin Fowlie, to operate out of its Aberdeen office...The US Export-Import Bank is to prove $1bn in financing to PEMEX to support the acquisition of American good and services, including drilling equipment.

Chevron’s UK subsea technology maven Peter Blake and Dr Gordon Drummond, technology manager at Subsea 7, have been named chairman and project director, respectively, of the National Subsea Research Institute (31/6)...Tim Martin, former BP and Shell contractor, has been named managing director of Ramboll Oil & Gas’ new UK operation...Jonathan Chapman and Steve Kemp have joined MOL Energy UK as subsurface and operations-technical director, respectively. Both have previously been with Centrica where MD Chris Bird was after the takeover of Venture Production.

Offshore