DeepOcean Group Newsletter 2016 No.2

DEEPOCEAN GROUP NEWSLETTER 2016 NUMBER 2

INTO THE DEEP 2

CONTENTS

03 Intro 04 HSE 06 Ethics & Compliance 07 The Fleet 08 Technology 10 Operations 12 Events 14 People 16 DeepOcean in pictures

EDITOR Hilde Solberg COMMITTEE Katie Johnson Anna Masztalerek Claire Binns Hilde Solberg Conrad Guyatt Rolf Ivar Sørdal Robert Schenk DESIGN Garp design PUBLISHED 29.04.16

INTRO

INTO THE DEEP 3

DEAR COLLEAGUES; The oil & gas downturn, that started almost two years ago, has been brutal because of two forces joining, namely the oversupply of offshore vessels and significantly less demand for oil field services..

The combination of the oil bull market from 2008 till mid-2014 and access to cheap financing due to historic low interest rates fuelled a large new build program of offshore vessels globally. Now in 2016 we have seen many of our competitors disappearing, ship-owners desperately restructuring their balance sheets to reduce the large amount of debt while their equity has been wiped out and many vessels cold stacked. There are reports that over 500,000 employees in the industry have been laid off and in excess of 600 vessels and rigs laid up.

In these dark days of the oil & gas industry, the offshore renewable industry has been one of the few bright spots. Several years ago revenue from offshore renewable projects contributed 5 to 10% of our total revenue. In 2017 I expect that this will exceed 50% of our revenue. However the transition from cable lay and trenching projects for oil customers in 2013 and 2014 to new projects for our offshore renewable and interconnector customers in the second half of 2016 and 2017 has not been an easy one. The financial performance of our cable lay and trenching business in 2015 was disappointing and the first half of 2016 won’t be much better. With the addition of the Maersk Connector and the deployment of the T3200 and UT1 on offshore power cable projects in the North Sea we are well positioned with the best assets in the industry but we will have to secure many more projects to achieve acceptable utilization for our vessels and to make a return on our new investments. Our ability to increase our exposure to offshore renewable projects while our oil and gas customers were significantly reducing expenditures has been an important differentiator for DeepOcean but we are not out of the woods yet.

In the last two months the oil price has recovered more than 50% from its 2016 low, but that doesn’t mean that the short term future looks brighter. With the exception of a likely modest increase in IMR expenditures, that in my opinion has been cut too far, it will

take some time for our customers to increase spending. They will need to strengthen their balance sheets and make new projects work at much lower oil prices because the oil price ceiling has dropped due to the abundance of easy accessible shale oil in the USA. The role of the swing producer has been transferred from government control in Saudi Arabia to market forces in the USA. The industry is now in a painful transition process from the days that a barrel of oil traded at $90-110 to the new normal of $50-60 per barrel. This means that our customers will have about 50% less revenue and hence we will have to live with approximately 50% less revenue as well and to cut our costs in half. We will have to become even more innovative, productive, reduce the cost of our chartered and owned assets, demand cost reductions when sourcing for services and materials, operate with fewer employees, and reduce other personnel related cost including salaries. We have to be prepared that 2016 and 2017 will be very tough years with more of our competitors disappearing. If we want DeepOcean to succeed we need to continue to reduce costs regardless of the industry that we operate in, because we are ONE Company.

We have informed ship owners whose vessels we have chartered that we are targeting 30% cost savings. In addition we have further reduced headcount and are looking at ways to reduce personnel related direct and indirect cost by at least 10%. I expect that all employees and contractors who work for DeepOcean will participate in this cost reduction effort in order for DeepOcean to weather this long downturn.

We have a great company and I would like our legacy to be one of adaptors, survivors and winners. I will reach out to all of you in May 2016 to gain your support. In the meantime I thank you for your hard work and the difference you make for DeepOcean each and every day.

Be Safe

Regards, Bart Heijermans

Chief Executive Officer

INTO THE DEEP 4

HSE

DEEPOCEAN’S OFFSHORE HSE COACH Scott Roberts, an experienced HSE Coach, commenced employment with DeepOcean on March 28th 2016. The main purpose of his role is to increase HSE awareness and behaviour during operations on our vessels and to strengthen team co-operation and development.

Many of us will be extremely conscious of the hard work and efforts that our personnel go to each day when aiming to achieve a positive and proactive safety culture throughout all of our operations within DeepOcean.

However we are always looking to develop and introduce new techniques and methods to strive towards our goal of an incident free workplace. As part of this continual improvement process I would like to introduce a new position of an Offshore HSE Coach into our organisation.

Scott will act as an ambassador for our safety principles and values providing a direct and visible link between the onshore HSE organisation, project teams and the offshore work sites. He will work in co-operation and partnership with the crew and ship management to increase the focus on workplace safety and continue to deliver energy into our ACT for Safety Programme.

The HSE Coach will focus on topics such as: • Acting as a coach and mentor to our offshore teams in relation to HSE matters • To aid understanding of safe working cultures and to assist with identification of areas for improvement or nonconformance issues • To build understanding and knowledge of HSE matters with the offshore teams

Scott commenced his first assignment on the Edda Fauna working on BP project work scopes.

However over time the intention is for the HSE Coach to rotate around various vessels and regions gaining an understanding of the different environments and work scopes the organisation is involved with.

I hope you will join me in encouraging the future success of this role and supporting Scott with his remit.

• To support self-verification and control of work activities • To provide feedback to onshore teams and the management organisation on HSE matters in the offshore environment

Claire Binns HSEQS Director

HSE

MEET SCOTT ROBERTS Experience: Several years offshore as an HSE Advisor/ Coach for companies including ConocoPhillips, BG Group, Britannia and Technip – mainly UKCS. and salvage them. People regulate them, survey them, underwrite them and investigate them when things go wrong.

As people, or rather humans, we are at the very centre of DeepOcean’s enterprises.

Collectively ‘we’ are the secret of its successes and the victims of its failures. It is ‘our’ human nature that drives what happens every day at work, both onshore and offshore – from the most routine of tasks through to the delivery of the most complex of work scopes.

A little more about me: I live in a small coastal village on the East coast of Scotland - St Cyrus, I am a keen golfer and follower of football. However the vast majority of my time (when at home) is spent chauffeuring my children here, there and everywhere.

Family, moreover returning home safe to my family is important to me - Spending quality time with my wife Dale, our kids Faith, Jenna and Sean and our two boxer dogs whenever possible keeps me happy.

What is a HSE Coach? A facilitator, supporter, motivator, non-judgemental, a believer. What a HSE Coach is not: A Counsellor, Therapist, Psychologist, Critique, Doctor or Spy. What are the beliefs of an HSE Coach: Good health, safety, environmental and quality standards are good for business, there is good in everyone, everyone has a different view of the world, the meaning of communication is in the response you get, what you allow is what will continue, but most importantly; people matter.

The offshore industry is run by people, for people. People design the vessels and assets, build them, own them, crew them, operate them, maintain them, repair them

On a daily basis, by the very nature of being human, we face several technical and non-technical challenges, which can be further compromised by the very facts that: We need to make sense of things: We are absorbing information from all around us all of the time. What may be obvious to one person is not necessarily so for another, hence why it is so important to not only lookout for ourselves but others also.

We communicate with others via a plethora of mediums: Not only do we seek to be understood, but we also need the ability to understand others. How we communicate, listen and check for understanding is critical.

We learn and develop: No matter how hard we try, we just can’t stop learning.

As individuals and as an organisation it’s about ensuring that we learn the right things at the right time.

We work with others: Sure we all have individual goals and targets, but we are also part of a team with a common purpose which requires having effective ‘people’ skills.

We all get tired and stressed: We have lives inside and outside of work. Fatigue and stress can have a major impact on our performance. How we manage fatigue, stress and our workload is vitally important.

We make decisions: Sometimes rushed and or ill-informed. How we think we make decisions and how we actually make decisions can be quite different: experience does not always lead to expertise, but expertise always requires experience.

We take risks: In a world so uncertain, risk taking is almost inescapable. Our perception of risk is actually quite different from the probability with which events actually occur. Of this we need to be ever mindful. We make mistakes: our strength comes from having the ability to make, and then recover from, mistakes. Without error there can be no learning. However we must ensure at all times that any potentially harmful or expensive mistakes are prevented, caught or minimised to prevent escalation.

The benefits of successfully integrating a HSE Coach within the workforce are obvious; especially if one notes a statistic from the UK Health and Safety Executive, that: “Over 80% of accidents result directly from unsafe practices or behaviours (the actions or omissions of people)”.

Never has it been more important to work as a team, whom looks out for each other whilst aspiring to delivering excellence.

With that in mind, we at DeepOcean are One Team, with One Goal, which is to be Incident Free, and I look forward to meeting you and working aside you to achieve our common purpose, living our shared values.

Until then, take care.

INTO THE DEEP 5

INTO THE DEEP 6

ETHICS & COMPLIANCE

AVOIDING CYNICISM AND STAYING COMMITTED EVEN WHEN YOU’RE OVERWHELMED Burnout. Fatigue. Stress. When we feel overwhelmed by issues at work, engagement can be the first casualty.

Cynicism can start to seep into our conversations, actions and interactions.

When this happens, ethics and compliance requirements or issues might feel like just another box to check. After managers and their teams reach a critical point of disengagement with E&C initiatives, you may start to hear things like.

• “Just take the online training as quickly as you can and get it over with.

We’ve got more important things on our plate.”

• “Don’t bother reporting that to HR— they’re not going to do anything anyway.”

• “Right or wrong, that’s just the way things get done around here.”

• “That policy is so unclear. Just do whatever you think is best.”

of ethics and compliance efforts. And a dismissive attitude can breed misconduct, unethical actions and a highly-damaging culture of cynicism.

Our organization is fully committed to ensuring that every employee is empowered and equipped to make ethical decisions that are in line with our code of conduct and our core values. The only way to live out this commitment is to help individuals rethink what they say, what they do, and how they get things done through a lens of ethical decision-making.

When E&C requirements are feeling burdensome, consider this: research shows that firms with excellent governance, risk and compliance practices generally have better: • Financial returns

• “We’ve always done it that way. I know it seems like a violation of procedure, but really it’s fine.”

• “Running that through legal is going to be a nightmare. Just sign it. No one will care.”

While these kinds of reactions may sound somewhat innocuous, they’re actually the seeds that can grow team-wide dismissal

• Brand and reputation protection • Credit ratings and capital cost reduction • Advantages in mergers and acquisitions • Cultures, and employee retention and satisfaction.

So the next time you hear a team member express scorn for an ethics and compliance activity—or when you’re tempted to say something negative yourself—get back on the right track by reminding your team member and yourself of the benefits of fostering a culture of compliance, ethics and respect.

As always, the Compliance Team wants to be a resource for you (you may reach us at compliance@deepoceangroup.com).

Come to us with questions, ideas and issues you’re facing. If morale or engagement on your team is low, let us help you reduce compliance risks related to disengagement while we work together on strategies for addressing the root causes of the issues your team is facing. And remember, the attitude of each team member can help set a tone for the team.

What example will you set today?

ETHICS & COMPLIANCE CORNER

Authors: The Compliance Team

THE FLEET

INTO THE DEEP 7

VESSEL OF THE YEAR CAMPAIGN AS OF MARCH 31ST 2016

1

ARBOL GRANDE

GO PEGASUS

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA - Total recordable injuries frequency - Safety observation cards close outs - Environmental releases - Vessel operational uptime - Client feedback - High potential incidents

2

ATLANTIC CHALLENGER

INTO THE DEEP 8

TECHNOLOGY

SWIMMING WITH A LEOPARD On board of the multi-purpose vessel Deep Helder

It does sound strange and unnatural; a swimming leopard. Seamar started building the multi purpose vessel Deep Helder in 2013 and was commissioned and chartered by DeepOcean in 2014. At the same time DeepOcean ordered a Leopard ROV with Saab Seaeye.

DeepOcean ordered this ROV specifically to be used as a survey vehicle with tooling capabilities. And it was expected that the ROV would be operational at the same time as the Deep Helder being commissioned. Actually, the Deep Helder was built with dedicated locations on the back deck and strengthening for this ROV. Although the building of the vehicle did not match the time frame of the engineering of our survey ROV (or the other way around, building went faster then the engineering),

the factory acceptance test was performed successfully in Southampton. After a full mobilization in Den Helder on board of the Deep Helder and doing the first wet-tests in the harbour and at sea, we quickly discovered that engineering and shaping the system from a drawing board does not always match the real thing, the Field tests. Saab Seaeye designed the system according to our specifications and with their extensive knowledge of building ROV’s. And the first time, the Leopard got wet, it did not really like being in the water. It is a joke Saab Seaeye heard many times before with the naming of their ROV’s.

Saab Seaeye builds electrical ROV’s.

DeepOcean owns a few different systems.

There is a Panther, Sea-Owl and now a Leop-

TECHNOLOGY

ard. All animals, and to be more precise, the ones ‘born’ in Sweden are birds, and the ones ‘born’ in the UK are cats. Kyst Design builds hydraulic ROV’s. And all of these systems are named after their task, Supporter, Constructor, Installer or Surveyor. I do like the idea of naming ROV’s, but naming them after birds or cats? One of the first ROV’s I have worked with was the Stealth ROV, build by Hitek. It was named to represent the (survey) speed it could reach due to the shape of the vehicle. Next one should be more mythical, like Odin or Thor.

Anyway, just before Christmas last year, the system was demobilized and put inside the Den Helder workshop. To understand what the situation was at that time, there were approximately 300 snags on the list for Saab Seaeye to improve on the whole system to match our specifications! And when the Deep Helder returned to port having done UXO work, the Leopard was remobilized again with almost all snags ticked off the list. This time we were confident that the system would perform so much better then the last time it tried to swim. During the trials, the snag list was reduced to less then ten items and these issues we knew they would be present. Finally, DeepOcean accepted the leopard system. In 2017 DeepOcean will lay the Race Bank cable in the UK sector of the North Sea. The Deep Helder has been internally awarded to perform Touch Down Monitoring (tdm) tests for this project. These tests were to find out if a tom survey can be performed from a fixed point from the ship and not from a tdm. Using a tdm system from a fixed point on board will reduce the time needed to hand over data to our clients and more important, supply the customer with a higher level of satisfaction.

The Deep Helder has two 120cm moon-pools on both port and starboard side, therefore ideal for this test. One moon-pool was mobilized with an ADCP Doppler to measure the current of the water at all depths. The other moon-pool was mobilized with a R2SONIC multibeam system on a pan & tilt unit. The company that provided this system is a new start-up company founded by TU Delft university students. Indeed, it felt like we had a group of students on board on a field trip. However, these guys were able to show data with

their own in-house developed software. And the data was very close to the actual touch down position of the cable, which matched the data collected from the leopard.

The Deep Helder never laid any cable before. And it was interesting to see how she behaved as a cable-laying vessel. As can be seen on the picture, the reel was mobilized on port side and the cable chute on starboard side. So we were deploying the cable over the starboard side of the ship and moving to port side with the ship to lay the cable. Good communication was vital to get it all done smoothly. A small error could result in loosing the ROV or wrapping the cable around one of the ships thrusters. Nothing like that happened. All went well.

The task of the Leopard was to perform TDM to correlate the data from the subcontractors. And to use the manipulators to release and connect the crane-hook from the cable/anchor. Any other ROV (team) would easily perform these tasks. But for this ROV and the team, it was a little bit different. Just a few days before the start of this project, we performed the Sea Acceptance Tests with Saab Seaeye. Due to time pressure, it was decided to post-pone the improvements and modifications on the ROV until after this project.

After a rough start, with quite a few blackouts and failing parts on the vehicle, we got the ROV 100% operational by getting it all working on the fly with the ROV still in the water. Actually, every hour in subsea we got to know the system better and better.

It was a steep learning curve for the ROV team, and we were able to operate this new vehicle without any downtime.

A big compliment to the team!

This specific Leopard is build as a full survey vehicle. Of the Leopard series, ours, the 1703, is the most complex one. Build for power, speed, payload and collecting data with full station-keeping capabilities. Just now we learn to understand the full potential of the 1703, and we can see many more projects where we can deploy here than ‘just’ for survey work. For example UXO, small intervention, tooling, inspection and touchdown monitoring.

As mentioned before, the specifications drawn up by DeepOcean had to be fulfilled by the 1703. And as the specifications are met, our focus is shifted towards expectations. We strongly believe that the Leopard is capable of much more than we expected of the system when the specifications were set during the build of the vehicle. Together with Saab Seaeye, we are constantly looking at improvements and upgrades. The combined forces of the Deep Helder with the Leopard permanently installed, is a very strong motivation for clients to look at our office and understand why we have pushed so hard to have this spread ready.

Looking back, swimming with a Leopard isn’t such a crazy idea!

Author: Robert Schenk, Survey Tech. 1

INTO THE DEEP 9

INTO THE DEEP 10

OPERATIONS

OUR CURRENT OPERATIONS

A EDDA FAUNA C BP P BP IMR 2016

A DEEP HELDER C MULIPLE CLIENTS P SEVERAL

A MAERSK RECORDER C N/A P N/A

A DEEP WAVE C LAID UP NORWAY P N/A

A DEEP INVESTIGATOR C LAID UP NORWAY P N/A

A DEEP VISION C DONG ENERGY P 2016 INSPECTION

A REM FORZA C TULLOW, GHANA P FIELD SUPPORT

A DINA STAR C TULLOW, GHANA P IMR

A EDDA FLORA C STATOIL P SURVEY AND LCV

A REM OCEAN C STATOIL P IMR

A HAVILA PHOENIX C N/A P N/A

A GO PEGASUS C PRYSMIAN P WESTERN LINK

A ARBOL GRANDE C DIAVAZ P IMR A ATLANTIC CHALLENGER C DIAVAZ P IMR

A DEEP ENDEAVOUR C LAID UP NORWAY P N/A

OPERATIONS

DeepOcean operations continue around the world, with projects since the last newsletter performed in the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, Ghana, Greater North Sea and the Far East. Operations included IMR, Survey, Subsea Installation, Construction and Trenching for a range of customers.

A VOLANTIS C TECHNIP P WHEATSTONE

KEY A = ASSET C = CLIENT P = PROJECT

INTO THE DEEP 11

INTO THE DEEP 12

EVENTS

NAMING CEREMONY FOR

EDDA FREYA AT KLEVEN YARD

On Friday 15th April I had the pleasure of attending the naming ceremony of our new build construction vessel Edda Freya at Kleven yard in Ulsteinvik, Norway

I felt the excitement already when landing at Ålesund airport, and my expectations were rising as the fast ferry took us to the Kleven yard, all framed in a beautiful landscape of snow covered mountain tops and scattered islands in the calm west coast Norwegian fjords.

Would I be disappointed? Would the vessel live up to my expectations from the glossy marketing brochures and power point presentations we have made? No worry! Arriving at the yard I felt an instant relief. The down-to-earth atmosphere, proud and smiling faces, local school brass band and flags made me think - this is quality - that’s why the ship was built here.

And what a ship – this orange and yellow lady - packed with high tech equipment from the keel to the helms room certainly lived up to my wettest dreams. I can’t wait to see her out on the first job for DeepOcean. Being named Edda Freya after the Norse goddess of beauty and fertility, all at the hands of another beautiful lady and godmother, Mrs. Kjersti N. Bårdsen, I am sure she will bring pride and prosperous times to DeepOcean.

Congratulations to all of you involved in the making!

Author: Rolf Ivar Sørdal, Commercial Director Subsea Services

EVENTS

•

EXHIBITIONS AND CONFERENCES 2016

DeepOcean will be present at various exhibitions and conferences in 2016 UTC 2016 Bergen, Norway 14.- 16. June

ONS 2016 Stavanger, Norway 29. Aug. - 1. Sept.

WIND ENERGY Hamburg, Germany 27 - 30. Sept.

INTO THE DEEP 13

INTO THE DEEP 14

PEOPLE

NEIL POLSON COMMEMORATIVE MTB TRAIL As some of you will know our good friend and colleague Neil Polson (Lead Project Engineer based in the Darlington office) passed away suddenly last September.

His passing leaves a huge hole in all our lives for a variety of reasons but with the common theme that in whatever circle it was you knew him from, we have no doubt he was always the kindest and most genuine person you could know. A pleasure to be around and spend time with, we are confident that we can speak for you all when we say that Neil will be and is already massively missed.

PEOPLE

Neil’s family chose Hamsterley forest (in the North East of England) to scatter his ashes. This is a place where they spent a lot of happy family time together while growing up. In more recent years it’s where Neil enjoyed many a happy and muddy mountain bike rides with both his family and his many friends.

Neil will never be forgotten but we believe it would be a fitting tribute to him if we could play a part in developing a new and permanent mountain bike trail in his memory to give something back to the Hamsterley community and to help develop the next generation of mountain bikers. To this end we have been in contact with the fantastic guys and girls at the Hamsterley trailblazers charity (http://hamsterley-trailblazers.co.uk ) who build the trails, who fully support our idea and would welcome the opportunity for us to get involved. In exchange for some fund raising and provision of manual labour, we will have the opportunity to get involved in the trail design, build and hopefully naming (to be confirmed what exactly but something fitting in Neil’s honour, suggestions welcome).

Neil, you were a true gentleman.

Rest in peace, our friend, and ride on up there forever.

So to cut to the chase the trail build has been split into two sections, firstly the fundraising element and there is a web page that has been setup to focus the fundraising efforts into one place. There are several events already planned by various people (open gardens, 24 hr bike rides, coast to coast bike rides, etc.) that will feed all proceeds back through here, so if anyone has their own ideas for fundraising and wants to do something, that would be amazing and all contributions are very gratefully received. Equally any direct donations to the cause will be most welcomed also and can be made through this site also (https://localgiving.com/fundraising/neil-polson). The cost of developing these trails is significant and to provide a reasonable proportion of “Neil’s trail” we are looking to raise £5000. We appreciate that this is a lot of money but NEIL know that Neil’s influence is very wide ranging and believe POLSO N, Lead that it is achievable over the course of 2016. So far we have Proje ct En raised over £3500 which is fantastic considering that we g inee r, Dar have not really started to push the fundraising efforts yet! lingt on The second stage is to muster as many willing pairs of hands as we can to actually do some building, it is expected that the build will start around April / May 2016, but we will continue to update on this and coordinate the necessary work parties!

Further reports to follow in subsequent news letters on the progress of the various fundraising events and also the trail build progress!

Finally we would like to thank you very much for you time reading this, and also hopefully in advance for the contributions and support that followed!

Author: Conrad Guyatt, Engineering Manager, UK

INTO THE DEEP 15

THANK YOU TO ALL DEEPOCEAN EMPLOYEES WHO CONTRIBUTED TO THIS EDITION

DINA STAR Hans Petter Bjørnson

DEEP ENDEAVOUR Per Gommesen

DINA STAR Geir Magne Kvinnesland

DEEP ENDEAVOUR Per Gommesen

DINA STAR Hans Petter Bjørnson

DEEP ENDEAVOUR Per Gommesen

SFL INSTALLATION, Jubilee Field

EDDA FREYA, Kleven Verft Torgeir Arve Eidem

MAERSK CONNECTOR Rach Inness

Hans Petter Bjørnson

Please send input for consideration to your local HR/Communications team. www.deepoceangroup.com

Photo: Haakon Nordvik