Subsea World News has gathered all the highlights to bring you a summarized version of the most popular articles from the previous month.
The year started off with mixed feelings about where the subsea industry will be heading in 2016. The companies continue to adjust to new market conditions as the value keeps declining each month. The stock market has been tough on all oilfield-services providers, bringing them to even up to a decade-low, in some cases even more.
Some players have already announced new rounds of layoffs, while the rest is still to be known when the subsea majors present their full-year 2015 earnings and outlook for this year. The giant Schlumberger had to let go additional 10,000 workers and Aker Solutions is forced to cut 900 more MMO jobs in Norway after loosing the bid for Statoil job.
Nevertheless, contract awards seem to be slowly picking up. McDermott will install subsea umbilicals and flowlines for Anadarko’s Phase II development of the Caesar/Tonga field, Wood Group scooped Prelude FLNG job in Australia, and FMC will deliver subsea production systems for Woodside’s Western Flank Phase 2 (GWF-2) project. Other notable deals include master service agreements Norway’s Statoil has made with Aker Solutions and OneSubsea, Johan Castberg FPSO concept study for Aker Solutions, and approximately $117 million in contracts for SapuraKencana.
Also in January, NHO and Technip Norway have gone to court with Norway’s offshore union, Industri Energi (IE) and the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) claiming the “breach of peace obligation” following the boycott notice IE handed in to Technip Singapore after the company rejected the collective agreement for its offshore workers engaged on the Norwegian shelf.
In addition, previously announced Fugro’s sale and leaseback agreement for its geotechnical vessels Fugro Scout and Fugro Voyager has been officially wrapped up, bringing them close to €100 million in cash, which, according to the company, will be fully applied to debt reduction. News about other vessels have also drawn attention of our readers, especially the arrest of the deepwater pipelay construction vessel “Jascon 18” in Singapore.
For the month of January, our 10 most-read articles were:
Subsea 7 Sinks to Five-Year Low Subsea Vessel Arrested in Singapore
DeepOcean Axes 90 Jobs Technip Takes IE to Court
Schlumberger Axes 10,000 More Fugro Strikes Double Vessel Deal
Aker, OneSubsea Agree with Statoil McDermott Scoops Anadarko Gig
900 Must Go at Aker’s MMO Wood Group Lands Prelude Deal