In just a few short weeks, a new year will arrive and bring with it an end to a very busy 2014 for many in the industry. There are many uncertainties in the year to come, and questions and concerns cloud the horizon, making next steps difficult to predict. But for some the view of 2015 is clear.

In late October, Loh Chin Hua, CEO of Keppel Corp., noted in the company’s third-quarter 2014 report that, “although fears of a short-term surplus in oil supply outstripping demand growth amidst an uneven global recovery have led to the recent fall in oil prices, they have not altered sound industry fundamentals. E&P investments have to increase to keep up with global oil demand set to rise by 1.1 MMbbl/d in 2015.” He added that oil prices should recover and stabilize at a level that is comfortable to oil producers.

This is a position that echoes an earlier statement issued in August by Sembcorp Marine in its industry outlook when it noted that there is a strong underlying trend toward high-specification harsh-environment jackup rigs as well as deep and ultradeepwater floating units, adding that its pipeline for new projects is “encouraging” based on robust levels of inquiries.

For three of the largest builders of offshore vessels—Keppel Corp., SBM Offshore and Sembcorp Marine—2014 was a year full of deliveries and new contracts set to keep the projects pipeline flowing through 2017. A few highlights for each company follow.

Keppel Corp.

As one of the industry’s leading designers, builders and repairers of high-performance mobile offshore drilling units, Singapore-based Keppel FELS (a subsidiary of Keppel Offshore and Marine, a wholly owned company of Keppel Corp.) offers a portfolio of proprietary designs and floating solutions for a wide range of operating environments.

Its KFELS B Class of jackup rigs entered the market in 2000 and has since gone on to become one of the company’s most popular designs. In February the company secured contracts from two different operators for a total of four B Class rigs.

UMW Drilling 8 signed a contract for its third B Class rig worth $218 million. The first jackup—UMW NAGA 4—was delivered in February 2013; the second—UMW NAGA 5—is expected to be completed in 2014. Expected delivery date for the company’s third B Class rig is third-quarter 2015 and is the 75th B Class rig ordered since 2000, according to a company release.

Fecon International Corp. secured contracts with Keppel FELS for three Class B rigs worth $650 million. As a new player to the offshore oil and gas industry, Fecon will use the new rigs to further its strategic growth plans into Africa, Middle East and Southeast Asia.

The cost-effective and high-performance KFELS B Class rig is able to operate in water depths of up to 122 m (400 ft) and drill to 9,144 m (30,000 ft) deep. Customized to Fecon’s requirements, the three jackup rigs will each have a full 15,000-psi BOP system, 23-m (75-ft) cantilever outreach and be able to accommodate 150 persons, a company-issued release said.

In August the company delivered the XLE-2 class jackup rig to Maersk Drilling. The Maersk Interceptor is the world’s largest jackup rig, according to Maersk. It is the second of four ultraharsh-environment jackup rigs to enter the Maersk Drilling fleet. The remaining two rigs are set for delivery in 2015 and 2016. The Interceptor commences drilling this month in the Ivar Aasen Field in the Norwegian North Sea for Det norske oljeselskap ASA. The XLE rig has a leg length of 206 m (678 ft) and is designed for year-round operations in the North Sea in water depths up to 150 m (492 ft). According to Maersk, uptime and drilling efficiency are maximized onboard the Interceptor through dual pipehandling. While one string is working in the wellbore, a second string (e.g. casing, drillpipe or bottomhole assembly) can be assembled/disassembled and stored in the setback area, ready for subsequent transfer for use in the wellbore and reducing nonproductive time. The drill floor features Multi Machine Control—a fully remotely operated pipehandling system allowing all standard operations such as stand building and tripping to be conducted without personnel on the drill floor, ensuring a high level of consistency across crews and an improved efficiency.

In October, the company announced that it will build the KFELS Super B class of jackup rig for $240 million for BOT Lease Co. that will be operated by Japan Drilling Co. (JDC) based on a lease agreement with BOT. Named the Hakuryu 15, the rig is set for completion at year-end 2016.

A company release noted that what differentiates the Super B Class is its ability to drill to depths up to 10,668 m (35,000 ft) and that the rig’s leg structure is uniquely designed to provide enhanced robustness for operations at 122 m water depth. The rig, adapted to JDC's operating philosophy, is engineered to operate in high ambient temperatures and features an offline stand building capability to handle drillpipes efficiently and a high-capacity hook load of 2 MMlb, boosting overall rig performance and productivity.

October was a busy month as Keppel Shipyard secured an FPSO conversion contract for Armada Cabaca Ltd. The yard commenced work on the FPSO conversion for Bumi Armada, which is scheduled to be completed in second-quarter 2016. The FPSO unit will have a storage capacity of 1.7 MMbbl and will be able to handle up to 80 Mbbl/d of oil and 3.4 MMcm/d (120 MMcf/d) of gas handling. Upon completion, the FPSO vessel will be producing for the Angola Block 15/06 East Hub Project located 350 km (217 miles) northwest of Luanda, Angola.

SBM Offshore

For this Netherlands-based company, the design and construction of FPSO vessels is SBM’s primary business. Since supplying the mooring system for the first FPSO unit in 1976, the company has been involved in more than 40 FPSO projects worldwide, according to the company. With construction yards in Brazil and Angola, SBM is uniquely positioned to provide its services to the rapidly growing oil and gas industry in both countries.

This past year saw the delivery of two FPSO vessels from each of its yards. In July, the N’Goma FPSO vessel sailed away from the Paenal yard bound for its new home in the Eni-operated Block 15/06 offshore Angola. According to SBM, the N’Goma was converted from the FPSO unit Xikomba that was disconnected from Angola Block 15 in 2011, where it had operated for eight years. The N’Goma has a total oil processing capacity of 100 Mbbl/d of oil, gas handling capacity of 3.3 MMcm/d (115 MMcf/d) and water injection capacity of 120 Mbbl/d.

From SBM’s Niterói yard, the FPSO unit Cidade de Ilhabela left the calm waters of Rio’s Guanabara Bay in September for final verifications and sea trials. The vessel will operate under a 20-year lease contract for Petrobras as the production platform for wells in the company’s Sapinhoás Norte field. The FPSO vessel has a total storage capacity of 1.6 MMbbl, total oil processing capacity of 150 Mbbl/d of oil, gas handling capacity of 4 MMcm/d (140 MMcf/d) and water injection capacity of 180 Mbbl/d.

With its work on Shell’s Stones development in the Gulf of Mexico and Prelude FLNG project, the company’s turret design group has had its hands full as of late. The largest piece of the turret for Shell’s Prelude FLNG facility left the Dubai DryDocks World yard in August for the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in Geoje, South Korea. According to Shell, this piece of the turret weighs in at 4,300 tonnes.

“Prelude FLNG combines our many years of experience in shipping and in managing complex LNG and offshore projects. It’s great to see our innovative designs and technologies become a reality as we reach significant project milestones like this,” said Matthias Bichsel, projects and technology director at Shell.

“Designed in Monaco, built in Dubai, shipped to South Korea and for use off Australia, the turret is an example of the truly global nature of this project.”

Shell reports that once complete, Prelude FLNG will operate in a remote basin around 200 km (124 miles) off Australia’s northwest coast—for about 25 years—producing about 3.6 million tonnes of LNG a year to help meet rising global demand for cleaner energy.

Sembcorp Marine

For Singapore-based Sembcorp Marine, 2014 was a busy year spent acclimating to a larger area to work. In August 2013, the company commenced operations at its new Sembmarine Integrated Yard @ TUAS. Designed to maximize production efficiencies and operational synergies, the yard includes optimized docking and berthing facilities, an improved dock and quay ration, a centralized layout and integrated facilities, the company said.

Phase I of the new yard is equipped with four very large crude carrier drydocks with a total dock capacity of 1.55 million deadweight tonnes as well as finger piers and basin lengths totaling 3.9 km (2.4 miles). The 73.3-hectare Phase I yard facility forms the first of three phases of construction of the 206-hectare Sembmarine Integrated Yard @ Tuas. Phase II of the new yard, which spans 34.5 hectares, is expected to commence operations in the next three to four years, according to a company release.

In October, the company was awarded the distinction of being the “Shipyard of the Year” at the 2014 Lloyd’s List Asia Awards for the first time based on its proven track record in ship repair, building, conversion, rig building, and offshore engineering and construction.

In October, Sembmarine’s subsidiary PPL Shipyard announced that it secured a contract to build a new jackup rig from BOT Lease Company (BOTL). The rig, scheduled for delivery at the end of October 2016, will be built based on PPL’s Pacific Class 400 (PC 400) design. This latest generation of high-specification jackup rigs is capable of operating in deeper waters of 122 m (400 ft) and drilling HP/HT wells to depths of 10,668 m (35,000 ft). The rig design features 2 MMlb hook load and the latest drilling equipment for improved drilling efficiencies along with offline handling features and simultaneous operations support, a release said. Dubbed the Hakuryu 14, this will be the second jackup rig built by PPL for BOTL.

The first unit, named Hakuryu 12, is presently under construction with contractual delivery at the end of January 2015. PPL Shipyard also built the Hakuryu 10, a PPL Shipyard proprietary Pacific Class 375 series, for JDC—that unit was delivered in June 2008 and is currently chartered to Total E&P Indonesia, the release said.

Sembmarine, through its Jurong Shipyard subsidiary, was awarded by MODEC Offshore Production Systems a contract for a very large crude carrier conversion into an FPSO vessel as part of the TEN Development Project, a press release said.

When completed in fourth-quarter 2015, the TEN Development FPSO vessel will have a production and treatment capacity of 80 Mbbl/d of crude oil, 65 Mbbl/d of produced water and 5.1 MMcm/d (180 MMcf/d) of gas with an onboard storage capacity of 1.7 MMbbl.

The TEN Development FPSO unit will be operated by MODEC on behalf of its client Tullow Ghana Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Tullow Oil Plc. The FPSO vessel will host multiple subsea tiebacks from three reservoirs—Tweneboa, Enyenra and Ntomme—in the deepwater Tano Block off the coast of Ghana.

Perhaps the biggest news of the year for the Jurong Shipyard was its award of the $696 million contract to convert a shuttle tanker into an FPSO vessel for OOGTK Libra GmbH & Co. KG, a joint venture between Brazil’s Odebrecht Oil & Gas and Teekay Offshore.

The contract involves the conversion of the Navion Norvegia shuttle tanker to an FPSO unit that includes detailed engineering, installation and integration of topside modules, installation of external turret and power generation and accommodation upgrading as well as extensive piping and electrical cabling works, according to a company release.

Scheduled for completion in third-quarter 2016, the FPSO vessel will have the capacity to produce 50,000 bbl/d of oil and 4 MMcm/d (141 MMcf/d) of natural gas and is expected to be chartered to Petrobras for work on the Libra Field in the ultradeepwater section of Brazil’s Santos Basin. Operating as an early well-test unit, the FPSO unit will be on a 12-year charter once it begins its contract in late 2016.