Decom Mission Leading the decom journey

Last month saw the launch of Decom Mission.

Until now, you’ll have known us as Decom North Sea; the only trade organisation solely focused upon late life and decommissioning. The driver to establish us back in 2009 was the vision to connect the operator and supply chain communities as the North Sea industry’s decommissioning sector began to gather pace.

In reality, that activity gained real momentum rather later than anticipated, but as market conditions changed, and the UKCS’s regulatory context became became better understood over the years, the sector began to develop. Now, as the UKCS decom sector comes of age, it has become one that is rich in experience - viewed by many as a centre of excellence, which offers guidance on best practice to emergent decom regions.

We frequently provide that guidance. Add to the emerging markets of Australia and Brazil the maturity of decommissioning in the Gulf of Mexico, and it becomes clear that the decommissioning industry of 2023 is truly international. “Decom North Sea” worked for many years, now it simply no longer reflects the industry or the ambitions and locations of our members.

In a nutshell, as the whole energy industry undergoes a period of significant change as we transition towards a net zero future, and decommissioning activity accelerates, there is literally no industry body better placed to inform and independently represent decommissioning across the energy sector. This is where our new identity comes in.

In keeping with the evolving global decom landscape and its multi-national membership, Decom Mission is set to establish a network of international hubs in key locations, whilst maintaining the original North Sea headquarters.

And with the continued call for decommissioning services for the nuclear sector in the near term, and the renewables sector in the longer term, our new strategy and focus reflect that emerging business potential.

However, whilst the decom landscape may have developed, the fundamental objective set in 2009 remains unchanged: to signpost the opportunities ahead for our members - to connect, inform and facilitate industry relationships.

Decom Mission will continue to build upon this, and we will lead our members’ decommissioning journey. We will continue to deliver relevant, timely and cost-effective events and networking, alongside a specific commitment to provide members with improved data, strategic insight and focused member advocacy.

That is our Decom Mission. 

Nine European countries have pledged to install 120 GW worth of wind capacity in the North Sea by 2030, and these projects will require lots of heavy-duty converter stations. Given its unique capabilities, Allseas is raking in contracts for the jackets and topsides.

In mid-May, it secured a 14-platform contract for converter installation for the $30 billion TenneT offshore transmission grid project. This is a once-in-a-generation project, unprecedented in its scope.

Swiss heavy lift company Allseas may have designed the oneof-a-kind hydraulic lift ship Pioneering Spirit for the offshore oil and gas sector, but it is proving just as useful for offshore wind. The turbines that generate power at wind farms are just half the infrastructure of these massive projects; power conversion and transmission are just as resource-intensive, and often require installation of platforms that look - and weigh - almost exactly the same as offshore production platform topsides.

Pioneering Spirit was built to install and remove massive platform structures in one piece, and is perfectly positioned to capitalize on this new line of business. The ship can even place jackets. After the end of the Nord Stream 2 pipelay contract, Allseas added a gigantic rack to the stern of the Pioneering Spirit for use in decommissioning platform jackets in the North Sea. This rigging can be deployed just as easily in reverse to emplace jackets on the seafloor.

Last week, it added to the list with a contract from Dragados to install two 13,000-tonne jackets and two 27,000-tonne platforms off the coast of Germany. The 2 GW platforms will support power transmission for the BalWin wind farm cluster, and developer Amprion has stepped up the pace for construction. BalWin1 will enter into operation as early as 2029, two years ahead of schedule, and BalWin 2 will follow the year after.

“The next generation converter stations are substantial structures, similar in size to a football pitch and weighing up to 30,000 tonnes, housing complex and delicate HVDC technology that makes them a good match for our industry-leading installation capabilities,” said Pieter Heerema. "Pioneering Spirit’s large lift capacity and high workability ensure that the installations can be safely performed all year round, creating maximum flexibility in the vast and complex building schedules.”“The dive spread system is designed to work in tandem with the Trendsetter Trident well intervention system previously announced by Well-Safe Solutions in 2022.

“The potential for simultaneous operations with both technologies onboard will unlock even higher levels of operational efficiency, further minimising our environmental footprint 

Film-Ocean’s versatile ROV fleet is capable of working from surface to seabed in the most arduous conditions. Our class leading ROV fleet support your projects from vessels & platforms.

We specialise in providing innovative, cost effective subsea solutions to global offshore energy industry.

Versatile ROV Solutions

Pre & post installation site survey and UXO survey

ROV support for construction/installation and mooring chain tensioning

Cable lay survey and inspection/cable repairs

Subsea structure integrity inspection, NDT and cleaning

Annual inspection, repair and maintenance (IRM)

Our ROV fleet delivers the latest technology including:

3D Data Acquisition

Video Enhancement

Full 1080i HD and 4k cameras

Remote Inspection

Complete Tooling Solutions

Multi-beam Sonar to combat poor visibility conditions

Offshore O&G-related engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract award value year-to-date is estimated at US$15.6 billion (excluding letters of intent). This represents US$4.3 billion of EPC contract award value recorded over the last month, driven by a final investment decision (FID) to develop ExxonMobil’s Uaru development offshore Guyana. Following frontend engineering and design (FEED) for the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit awarded to MODEC in 4Q 2022, the contractor has confirmed it will construct and operate the production facility to be deployed on the Uaru field, known as the Errea Wittu FPSO. For the subsea component, Saipem will be responsible for the subsea umbilical, flowline and riser (SURF), while TechnipFMC will be responsible for the subsea production systems (SPS), including 44 subsea trees and 12 subsea manifolds.

Other notable activity in Latin America included Equinor’s announcement that an FID, valued at US$9 billion, was taken on the BM-C-33 project offshore Brazil. The EPCI contract award for the FPSO unit has been confirmed by MODEC, whilst a formal announcement for contracts related to the subsea components is pending. The FPSO’s processing capabilities will make the BM-C-33 project become the first project in Brazil to treat the gas offshore and be connected to the national grid without further onshore processing.

Outside Latin America, Subsea 7 announced an award alongside OneSubsea, through the Subsea Integration Alliance (SIA), for the BP-operated Raven Infill project offshore Egypt. The SIA will supply two subsea trees, in addition to the engineering, procurement, transport and installation of approximately 6km of flexible pipes, umbilical and associated subsea structures. Subsea 7 will also install three infield subsea pipeline systems, design and fabricate subsea structures for LLOG’s Leon-Castile development in the US Gulf of Mexico.

Year to date, a total of 141 subsea tree unit awards have been recorded, with ExxonMobil, Azule Energy and Equinor representing 60% of units awarded. Looking forward, Westwood forecasts a further US$52.3 billion of offshore O&G-related EPC spend for the remainder of 2023, driven by c.150 subsea tree unit awards, c.3,600km of subsea umbilicals, risers and flowlines (SURF), c.1,800km of pipelines, c.180 fixed platforms and 18 FPS units.

The global committed jackup count averaged 401 units in April. The marketed available and cold stacked jackup counts now stand at 34 and 57, respectively, while marketed, committed utilisation and total utilisation were 92% and 82% respectively. During the month, a total of 17 new contracts were awarded and two contract options were exercised, amounting to 6,537 days (17.9 rig years) of backlog added. The Persian Gulf accounted for 30% of total awarded days, including the Paradise 400 jackup fixture for IOOC, which will run for 730 days starting in 2Q 2023.

Offshore Field Development available from

SubseaLogix PlatformLogix

$billions #XTs

70

The global committed semisubmersible (semi) count came in at 68 in April. There are 11 available and 16 cold stacked rigs remaining in the fleet. Marketed, committed utilisation grew to 86% during the month, while total fleet utilisation remained at 71%. Two contracts were awarded in April, including the Transocean Barents deal with TotalEnergies for work off Lebanon. The contract will run for 65 days at a dayrate of $365,000, and the operator will also have three options available.

60

50

40

Offshore 42.4 53.2 15.6

Offshore O&G EPC Awards

Finally, drillship demand increased to 82 units over the month, leaving only one marketed unit available plus 13 cold stacked rigs. Both marketed, committed utilisation and total fleet utilisation rose, improving to 99% and 85%, respectively. Eni has extended its contract with Saipem’s Santorini for another two years in the US Gulf of Mexico. The new charter will begin in direct continuation of the current campaign and pushes rig availability through August 2025.

30

20

80 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

Expected Sanctioned

Since the last update, Siemens Gamesa has been awarded a contract to supply 107 14MW turbines at the 1.5GW Baltica 2 wind farm, located offshore Poland. The contract includes a five-year service agreement for the turbines. Vestas has also signed a contract for the supply of 25 V174-9.5 MW turbines at the 238MW Kitakyushu-Hibikinada wind farm in Japan. The deal includes a long-term Active Output Management 5000 (AOM 5000) service agreement for the wind farm.

&

Offshore Field Development available from SubseaLogix SubseaLogix PlatformLogix PlatformLogix

Westwood Global Energy Group are specialist providers of detailed market intelligence for the offshore energy sector, covering; offshore rigs, production facilities, subsea equipment, subsea services, offshore marine and offshore renewables and power. Find out more about suite

Westwood Global Energy Group are specialist providers of detailed market intelligence for the offshore energy sector, covering; offshore rigs, production facilities, subsea equipment, subsea services, offshore marine and offshore renewables and power. Offshore 18.5

Westwood 52.4 65.6 0

Base case outlook assumes $70-$90/bbl for 2023 and $65/bbl for 2024/27.

FIDs have been taken on the 882MW Moray West and 496MW Le Treport wind farms since the last update. Siemens Gamesa will be responsible for the supply of turbines at both wind farms. Moray West will feature a total of 60 SG 14-222 DD turbines and Le Treport will feature 62 SG 8.0-167 DD turbines.

$billions to be awarded kpoepd #WTGs

Dominating headlines was news that Poland's undersecretary of state for climate and environment has stated that the country is planning to hold four offshore wind subsidy auctions in 2025, 2027, 2029 and 2031. Two of the auctions will aim to provide subsidies for 2GW of projects respectively and the other two auctions will offer subsidies for 4GW of projects respectively.

Finally, a total of 20 potential offshore wind sites have been identified in Norway by the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE). The offshore wind areas that have been identified have been found to have good wind resources. Conflicts of interest between the environment, fisheries and other industries are also relatively low at these sites.

Energy Group 10

FPS Throughput Additions by Year of Sanction

Offshore WTG Awards (excl. Mainland China)

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 LNG Gas Liquids 293 141 16 44 76 15 2022 2023 Sanctioned Pre-Order Firm Probable Possible

FPS Throughout Additions by Year of Sanction

Offshore O&G EPC Awards 2023-27 by E&P

Offshore O&G EPC Awards 2023-27 by E&P

Westwood Global Energy Group are specialist providers of detailed market intelligence for the offshore energy sector, covering; offshore rigs, production facilities, subsea equipment, subsea services, offshore marine and offshore renewables and power.

Find out more about Westwood’s OffshoreLogix suite of solutions.

Offshore Field Development available from SubseaLogix