This blog presents Metropolitan Engineering Consulting & Forensics (MEC&F) claim management and claim investigation analyses of some of the typical claims we handle
WHEN YOU DRIVE DURING
THIS NASTY WEATHER, REMEMBER: IT IS
BETTER TO ARRIVE LATE AT YOUR CURRENT DESTINATION, THAN TO ARRIVE EARLY AT YOUR
FINAL DESTINATION
SLOW DOWN; DO NOT DRINK AND DRIVE; DO NOT DRIVE WHEN YOU ARE UPSET; DO NOT DRIVE AND TEXT; DO NOT DRIVE AND EAT; DO NOT DRIVE WHEN YOU FEEL ASLEEP
Thousands of offshore workers could down tools in a dispute over terms and conditions.
Members of trade union Unite are to be asked whether there should be a ballot for industrial action.
More than 5000 contractors will be affected, including electricians, plumbers, mechanics and riggers.
Unite has claimed that the Offshore Contractors Association (OCA) is
using the slump in oil prices to "railroad through" changes to working
practices.
The OCA looks after the interests of dozens of companies that employ offshore workers.
They have proposed to change shift patterns from two weeks on and three weeks off to three weeks on and three weeks off.
Unite claims the OCA also plans to cut pension payments, sick pay and holiday leave.
Aberdeen-based Regional Officer Willie Wallace said: "The changes are
just getting imposed on the workforce, pushed mainly by the oil
companies, but they're pushing the contractors who are doing their
bidding.
"In the OCA agreement you have ten main contractor companies and
forty different associate companies. It's an agreement that covers all
construction and maintenance work offshore, in both the northern and
southern sectors. "The OCA represents the contractors that carry out work on the rigs
for the oil companies. It's the oil companies that are coming to the
contractors and saying we need to make these changes and the contractors
are coming to us and our members and saying this is what we're looking
to do. There is very little meaningful discussion.
"The Offshore Contractors Agreement covers between 8,000 and 10,000
people. We have the bulk of them as members, something like 5,000,
certainly the majority of them."
The workers will now be asked to take part in a consultative ballot
which could progress to an industrial ballot if a majority backs the
union's stance. Willie Wallace added: "In the first instance we need to get feedback
from them on how we should deal with this. We've tried to deal with it
through procedure and we haven't been successful."
Global oil prices have fallen sharply over the past seven months from around $110 a barrel to below $50 a barrel. Unite Industrial Officer Tommy Campbell has branded the proposed changes by OCA as "opportunistic".
He said: "The downturn in oil price has seen our members' terms and
conditions under attack like never before and while the threat of severe
cuts hangs over them, contractors are offering no safeguards in return.
"What we want is for the OCA to work with us to preserve jobs, skills
and sustain offshore safety rather than impose these opportunistic,
unsustainable and unworkable changes to livelihoods.
"Oil prices will recover but knee-jerk cuts to jobs and standards
will only undermine the future prosperity and safety of the industry in
the long term." OCA Chief Executive Bill Murray said: "We are in a challenging time
for the North Sea oil and gas industry. For some time we have
experienced unsustainable levels of cost inflation and whilst
recognition of the need to reduce this is not new the dramatic fall in
the price of oil has accelerated the need to address this.
"The industry is now facing a particular dilemma where operators are
looking to reduce costs promptly, especially for those with operations
where costs are outstripping revenue. The need for productivity
enhancements and efficient working is well understood by the industry,
and was highlighted to Union Negotiators in talks in December. These
talks are ongoing. Further meetings between OCA, Unite and GMB are
scheduled to commence on 25th February ... Talk of strike action is
premature." Source: Herald Scotland
Subsea
7 has been awarded a contract by Woodside Energy Ltd for the Persephone
Work Pack 2 Fabrication, Subsea Installation and Diving Services
project, offshore Australia.
The Persephone Project consists of
two wells tied into a subsea production manifold with production fluids
transported to the existing North Rankin Complex (NRC).
The
contract comprises fabrication, transportation, installation and
pre-commissioning activities within the principal scope of work, with
additional deconstruction and pipeline suspension work in the Echo Yodel
Field at the Goodwyn Alpha Platform.
The Company’s diving construction vessel Seven Eagle will perform all of the offshore activities.
Project
management and engineering will begin immediately from Subsea 7’s
office in Perth, Australia, with offshore operations scheduled to start
in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Andy Woolgar, Vice President,
Australia & New Zealand, said: “We are very pleased to receive this
important award from Woodside Energy Ltd. We believe it is a strong
reflection of our long, successful and collaborative relationship with
Woodside.” Source: www.offshoreenergytoday.com
Beset
by falling prices, the oil industry is looking at about 50,000 existing
wells in the U.S. that may be candidates for a second wave of fracking,
using techniques that didn’t exist when they were first drilled.
New
wells can cost as much as $8 million, while re-fracking costs about $2
million, significant savings when the price of crude is hovering close
to $50 a barrel, according to Halliburton Co., the world’s biggest
provider of hydraulic fracturing services.
While re-fracking
offered mixed results in the past, earning it the nickname “pump and
pray,” the oil crash is forcing companies to pursue new technologies to
produce oil more cheaply. Analyzing reams of data from older wells has
become a key piece of the puzzle, identifying the best candidates for
re-fracking instead of picking them simply at random, said
Hans-Christian Freitag, vice president of integrated technology at Baker
Hughes Inc.
“You want to talk about the next step to increasing
production without increasing costs?” said Carl Larry, Houston-based
director of oil and natural gas at Frost & Sullivan, a consulting
firm. “Re-fracking looks great.”
Fracking involves blasting water,
sand and chemicals down wells to crack rock, letting oil and gas flow
to the surface. This second wave of fracking is disappointing
environmentalists who expected a slowdown in new drilling tied to the
price slump. Critics say fracking leads to contamination, uses too much
water and creates air pollution from the sand mining.
Environmental Issues While
fewer new wells would seem to mean less total fracking, the re-fracking
phenomenon means there won’t be as big a reduction as some had
expected. Communities will continue to feel the impact from more
natural resources being used, said Sharon Wilson, the Texas organizer
for Earthworks, an environmental watchdog group. “It’s horribly
disappointing,” she said by telephone.
Fracking techniques have
come a long way since the North American shale revolution began more
than a decade ago. Since those early, primitive wells were drilled,
fracking specialists like Halliburton have gotten far better at figuring
out where to put the cracks, and how wide and deep they need to be to
get the most production.
Fracking projects have also become more
complex and expensive as wells reached further underground and engineers
figured out that the more cracks blasted into the reservoir, the more
oil comes out.
64% Rise While the number of
wells fracked in the U.S. last year climbed 64 percent to 18,200
compared to 2011, the total number of fracking stages -- the holes
punched in the rock -- more than doubled, according to Houston-based
industry adviser PacWest Consulting Partners, a unit of IHS Inc.
That means there are a lot of older wells with primitive frack work that are prime candidates for a fresh workover.
“The
timing is absolutely perfect for this opportunity,” Freitag said.
“Right now, the North American unconventional oil and gas industry is in
a bit of a crisis.” Before the crash, Halliburton had a harder
time convincing customers that re-fracking horizontal wells was
worthwhile, largely because of inconsistent results.
“Customers
look at it almost like going to a casino,” said David Adams, vice
president of operations technology in North America for Halliburton. The
hardest part about re-fracking is pumping new fracturing fluid down the
length of a well running horizontally for 5,000 feet (1,500 meters),
and isolating the spots that need to be blasted, said Rod Skaufel,
president of BHP Billiton Ltd.’s shale business.
Perfecting Technique That’s
more difficult than fracking a new well, and that’s why operators in
the past have dubbed the technique “pump and pray,” he said. Now,
though, oilfield service companies are working to perfect the technique.
BHP
Billiton, one of the biggest producers in Texas’s Eagle Ford shale, is
among the companies considering re-fracking more of its old wells,
though it isn’t yet completely sold on the new technology, Skaufel said.
The Australian oil and mining company is working with Schlumberger Ltd.
to test the technology in the gas fields of Louisiana’s Haynesville
Shale.
“Clearly if you could make this work, it allows you to have
a more cost-effective program under these prices,” Skaufel said.
“That’s why we’re excited about the concept.”
Best Targets Halliburton
has developed techniques to send fracking fluid into old wells and
direct it to the best targets, according to Adams.
“If you look at
the top operators across North America that we work with, there’s not a
single one of them that’s not talking about re-fracks today,” he said.
The
drilling slowdown is giving oil companies more time to tinker with the
new technology, said Dan Themig, chief executive officer at Packers Plus
Energy Services Inc.
“When oil prices and activity are high,
there’s no one available to look after experimentation,” said Themig,
whose closely held Calgary company is working on its own re-fracking
technique. “You will see experimentation take place in the next couple
of years. There is still money in our industry to do that.” Source: www.bloomberg.com
The
management of Viking Supply Ships (VSS) has decided to close down the
Aberdeen office with effect from July 1, 2015 in order to “remain
competitive and reduce costs”.
The Aberdeen office has operated
the Viking PSV fleet and the organisational change is a direct result of
the current weak market for these vessels, VSS explains.
The purpose is
to ensure a lean and efficient VSS organisation for the future, the
company adds. All administrative functions will be absorbed by the head
office in Copenhagen.
As a consequence VSS will enter into
consultation with affected staff in the Aberdeen office. The change in
the organisation will reduce the overhead costs for the segment and
ensure that the financial solidity of the VSS group remains strong.
The
high focus on quality and safety remains, and VSS will ensure that the
restructuring does not compromise on these matters. VSS will keep the
existing crew composition on the vessels. Source: www.offshoreenergytoday.com
