Hard Yards
Supply Vessels and offshore platforms are reaping the benefits of a highly competitive repair and maintenance market in the Gulf, says Goltens

April 2009 - Oil & Gas Middle East

Keeping the offshore industry afloat takes an armada of unglamorous but vital service craft flat out. Ensuring the flotilla is always on call are the regions smaller yards, which have turned a quick - turnaround into an art form.

A key player in the Middle East, and with a global pedigree is Goltens. The firms has carved an important name for itself in the regional offshore repair sector, recently winning contracts ranging from FPSO power plant upgrades to turnkey main engine repairs and hull work for CGG Vertsas.,

Fred Van der Bijl, director of technical Services, Goltens Dubai Branch, told Oil & Gas Middle East that there still remained further scope to step up tailored services for the offshore industry, and this was his goal for 2009.

"Between 70 and 80% of our business in this region is coming from the oil an gas supply and offshore support vessels. However, the majority is related to vessels, since we are a ship repair company, and docking offshore support / supply vessels is our day to day businesses," says van der Bijl.

In addition to this work, the company has been expanding its portfolio of offshore specific work. "This can vary between a turn-key project and supply of spare parts. In terms of rig work these are mainly special repair projects, although recently we executed a turn-key project in Qatar where we supplied and installed two start - up generators on two rigs in situ."

The double whammy of a credit crunch and suppressed oil price has hit many business down the E&P supply chain hard, and van der Bijl says repair and maintenance is no exception. "There has been a noticeable shift for sure. Business from 2006 through most of 2008 was booming. If a company didn't make good business then did something wrong!"

But things are noticeably different. The enquiries have remained about the same, but getting the orders signed take more work now. From the owners there is certainly more shopping around going on, and people are hanging on for lower bids to come in,"  he explains.

Goltens World Wide spans 22 branches, and this combined experience has kept the team in Dubai well rooted despite the boom time. "The most important factor is to pay constant attention and never lose sight of the market. Adopting the right strategy is more than just doing well when the market is. Therefore we are still investing in our company assets and resources despite the slowdown."

Whilst Goltens are expecting less activity than has recently been the norm, the Middle East has much to be optimistic about, and investments are in the firm's infrastructure here, and in India are ongoing. "We are about to finish our workshops in Jeddah (KSA) and in Mumbai (India), and globally we are very excited about a huge facility in Vietnam."

The EPIC (engineering, procurement, installation and commissioning) contract for FPSOcean’s Deep Producer 1 vessel at Goltens’ yard and Dubai Drydocks has been a notable success.

"Our engine, electrical and fabrication departments were working around the clock to complete the entire design, pre - fabrication, outfitting and commissioning of a complete containerized emergency generator in a n impressive 67 days."

The project included the fabrication of two enclosures - one for the emergency generator and the second for the emergency generator control panels.

"In another offshore success we have been working on the largest FPSO in the gulf for last three years, where we managed a complete system conversion and modification, without interrupting the operation of the FPSO."

Goltens has grown in stature with the regional repair and refurbishment scene and has branches in Fujairah, Qatar and the Jeddah yard will so go operational. In Bahrain the company have a tenancy at the country's dry dock and fabrication facility ASRY.

"The Bahrain arrangement has been very successful, both for us and the yard, and we are looking at replicating this elsewhere in the region," he says. Generally, managing an offshore production plant is not an easy task, especially when maintenance and repair of parts are a daily business.. Mobilization of big items or parts of the plant to a workshop is a costly task and very time consuming which can lead to project delays. To solve this,
and build on recent success, Goltens will be ramping up the in-situ service it offers this year. Flange facing as an in-situ machining service, already covers up to to 4000 mm facing. Line boring of fitting bolt holes, gear-boxes, engines or hinging of any kind are other services which the firm can offer on board.

"We are acutely aware that our customers can only do business when their ship is sailing so whenever a ship needs a repair then time is one of the most important issues. It remains our priority to focus on the repair and work together with our customer to get the job done in the shortest time," he signs off.