Inside this issue
Deeper and further than ever before >
Stability of supply key to Australian Growth >
"Our Subsea & Pipelines Technology Group is the world’s largest solution-independent service provider for subsea systems, onshore and offshore pipelines, and related marine facilities."
Allister Langlands
Chief Executive
Stability of supply key to Australian growth
One of the most resilient countries in the world, Australia is fast becoming a centre for oil & gas production for the region. Wood Group, with more than 1000 employees there, is establishing a new corporate office, Wood Group House, in Perth.
Mustang has been awarded the basis of design preparation and front-end engineering design (FEED) for the Woodside Energy Limited Otway Gas Plant Inlet Compression project. The Phase 2 development will take gas from the Thylacine and Geographe fields offshore southwest Victoria, Australia and provide compression at the inlet of the recently commissioned Otway gas plant north of Port Campbell, Victoria. Mustang completed the conceptual design study for the project. Photo provided by Woodside
Proximity to emerging Asian markets has helped propel Australia's economic growth and is leading producers to invest billions of dollars to develop its oil & gas industry. According to the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA), there are currently A$200 billion worth of oil & gas projects awaiting approval.
Wood Group established its presence in Australia in 1993, with the acquisition of J P Kenny. We have since expanded to 11 businesses, and become a leading provider of services across the region.
Recent acquisitions expand service offering
Since the summer of 2008, we have acquired three Australian companies, investing almost US$25million to date.
M&O provides safety and emergency response services to the offshore, maritime and mining industries. Les Thomas, Group director for Wood Group's production facilities activities, says, "M&O is expanding our provision of safety training to oil & gas clients around the world and offers a rapid response to emerging needs utilizing its mobile training centres."
Proteus and Regional & Northern Maintenance Service (RANms) provide engineering services, commissioning, and operations & maintenance support, and were recently rebranded as Wood Group Production Facilities. According to Bob Beavis, regional director for production facilities, "The acquisitions represent an important strategic development and allow us to expand the breadth of services to customers across the Asia Pacific region from our bases in Darwin and Perth."
Recent awards won by the new Group companies include a threeyear maintenance services contract by ENI Australia BV for the Blacktip project onshore gas processing plant, together with an unmanned wellhead platform and a single-point mooring associated with the Blacktip gas field.
When Woodside expanded its gas production facilities in Australia's cyclone-prone North West Shelf Area, our responsibilities included all engineering for the 42-inch 2nd Trunkline Project. Our innovative, patented gravity anchor system, developed to stabilize the pipeline in this cyclone-prone area, resulted in savings of more than $20 million when compared to conventional rock dumping.
Life cycle services for FPSOs
Having been involved with nearly 60 percent of floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels operating worldwide, Wood Group offers experienced project life-cycle services to Australia's buoyant FPSO market. Our engineering companies - including Mustang, which has been operating in-country since 2005 - have provided design services for the Nexus Crux, Four Vanguard, Apache Van Gogh and Coogee Montara FPSOs. An in-depth review of our FPSO experience was published in the Q1, 2009 issue of Wood News and can be read at www.woodgroupnews.com.
LNG
The LNG industry will play a significant role in Australia's growth. The long-term need for gas by Asian economies is expected to be strong, and according to APPEA Chairman Eric Streitberg, Australia provides nine percent of global LNG supply, with the potential to grow to 20 percent.
Wood Group's contributions to this sector include providing engineering and project management services for ExxonMobil's Scarborough field development, and front-end engineering design (FEED) of the pipeline umbilicals, risers and flowlines for INPEX's Ichthys LNG project. J P Kenny's largest-ever FEED contract, the Ichthys project will require almost 200,000 man-hours of input and will produce solutions for the subsea systems and 850km export pipeline. MCS will design the dynamic riser system and MSi will consult on flow assurance issues.
Valves and wellheads
Other Wood Group companies operating on the continent include Wood Group Pressure Control, which designs and manufactures wellhead systems, gate valves, chokes and actuators that control formation pressures and product flow from initial drilling through production.
Since 1997, Wood Group Pressure Control has grown to more than 70 people in Adelaide and Brisbane by providing wellhead services to a diverse range of Australian, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea operators. An important area of operations is supporting Australian oil and gas exploration company, Santos, from its Cooper Basin service base in Moomba, north of Adelaide. The relationship includes collaboration on new product development and improving safety.
Wood Group has a long-term commitment to Australia and the Asia Pacific region. We intend to continue expanding our operations there and to transfer specialized knowledge gained down under to other applicable projects worldwide.
For further information on Wood Group companies operating in Australia, visit www.woodgroup.com
FactFile
Australia's economy experienced more than 15 years of uninterrupted growth to 2008 and led to its economy being rated the most resilient in the world for six of the last eight years. In fact, the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook ranked it third most resilient in the world in 2009, behind Qatar and Norway.