IRO News 02

AUGUST 2006

NEWSletter 02 ASSOCIATION OF DUTCH SUPPLIERS IN THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY

This is the second issue of IRO NEWSletter. This newsletter will be published twice a year to inform our international relations about the news in the Dutch upstream oil and gas industry and the most noticeable activities of our members of IRO. PAGE 2

Van Oord Offshore looking for partnership with customers

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IRO Dutch Pavilions reports

IRO is the Association of Dutch Suppliers in the Oil and Gas Industry. The association furthers the interests of its 300 member companies in the field of politics, economics and technical affairs on a regional, national and international level.

IRO is continuously looking for opportunities for its members to enter new markets or develop existing markets, stimulate cooperation in the field of innovative technology and further expand the vast national and international network. Since its foundation in 1971, the number of members still grows.

IRO’s 35th anniversary On 8th September 2006, IRO celebrates its 35th anniversary at the Cruise Terminal Rotterdam.

In the morning programme, several ambitious student teams from technical universities will work hard on an assignment given by IRO. As part of the Offshore Students’ Contest, they have to come up with a solution to a problem stated in the assignment. In the afternoon, the winning team of the contest will be announced. For the afternoon programme IRO has invited a mixture of distinguished speakers, who will give their views on the oil and gas industry. To make IRO’s 35th anniversary an unforgettable one, we take this opportunity to present the IRO Award of Excellence. The IRO Award of Excellence will be presented to a person who has made him or herself useful in an outstanding way for the offshore industry. In particular IRO is looking for someone who had a very innovative attitude towards the development of products or industrial activities. This activity should be applicable for the whole Dutch oil and gas industry and it should also demonstrate that the Dutch suppliers can set the trends in the market.

gas industry. They are specialists in the supply of for instance (multinational) personnel, project and management teams, secondment of technical specialists (engineers, drilling personnel, consultants, etc), executive search and legal services. Many of the companies have besides a Dutch branch, overseas branches as well. The main purpose of the IRO Personnel Services Group (IPSG) is to promote cooperation between the IRO personnel services companies with regard to a large number of issues such as training, certification, internationalisation, regulations, promotional activities, benchmarking, future developments and lobbying. The IRO Personnel Services Group is coordinated by Ruud Liem, Business Development Manager of IRO.

Exhibitions To promote the qualities of Dutch suppliers in the oil and gas industry, IRO cooperates with national and international organisations with similar interests and spreads information via publications, internet and meetings. Also, IRO organises trade missions, seminars, workshops, member meetings and participation in oil and gas exhibitions worldwide.

You can still meet IRO in 2006 at the following exhibitions: Offshore Northern Seas Stavanger, Norway, 22-25 August ‘06 Rio Oil & Gas Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 11-14 September ‘06 Adipec Abu Dhabi, U.A.E., 5-9 November ‘06

IRO Personnel Services Group In the beginning of 2006 IRO set up the IRO Personnel Services Group.

A large number of IRO member companies are involved in personnel services for the oil and gas industry. These companies are both active in The Netherlands and internationally and have their own specialisation in the provision of personnel and related services for the onshore and offshore oil and

For the updated membership list, please visit our website: www.iro.nl IRO P.O. Box 7261, 2701 AG Zoetermeer, The Netherlands T +31 79 3411981 F +31 79 3419764 E info@iro.nl

Installation and post-trenching of 20 kilometres of pipeline in the Tatar Strait.

Van Oord Offshore looking for partnership with customers With increasing regularity, Van Oord Offshore is responding to the demands of customers active in the oil and gas industry through alternative offers. In making these offers, the company is able to use the considerable expertise acquired over the years in numerous offshore projects in all parts of the world.

As explained by Offshore Director Joep Athmer ‘We work with a client rather than for a client.’

Van Oord Offshore is based in Gorinchem and is part of Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contractors. ‘We are active and successful worldwide in contracting and implementing marine engineering service activities for the offshore industry’, explained Joep Athmer (50). One of our core activities is the protection of pipelines, cables and offshore installations by means of rockdumping. With our flexible fallpipe vessels Tertnes and Nordnes, we are able to place rocks with extreme accuracy to considerable water depths. Our services also include the laying and burying of pipelines at sea and bringing pipelines and cables ashore. Often, these are projects where the water is too shallow to deploy large pipelay or cable lay vessels. In other words, Joep Athmer summarises, ‘all sorts of projects between wind and water’.

The strength of Van Oord Offshore is that the company provides ideas to the customer, particularly during the initial process. ‘Thanks to our broad experience and in-house engineering, our added value is considerable. This means that we generally do not issue standard offers but come up with alternative solutions. Increasingly, we are seeing that this is much appreciated by our customers. During the implementation of complex projects, we also make sure that our own project engineers support the customer, to ensure a successful conclusion.

As a result, we are able to respond if unexpected problems

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arise. Our philosophy, therefore, is not to work for, but with, a client. For this reason, we are in favour of establishing more ‘partnerships’ with oil companies. A client is better served by a partner who contributes to the solution than a contractor who simply does what he is told’.

Sakhalin 1 Project Van Oord Offshore has established an impressive track record with the implementation of a series of special projects. One excellent example was the Sakhalin I Project for operator ExxonMobil. Joep Athmer, ‘Our contribution to this project involved two components. The first was the installation and post-trenching of 20 kilometres of welded steel oil pipeline, 24 inches in diameter, which links Sakhalin Island with the Russian Federation. This was known as the Tatar Strait Crossing. We installed the pipeline to tie-in points on the beaches. The work was carried out in compliance with the highest safety and environmental protection standards’. Of particular concern to the construction of this project was the sea ice that forms in autumn and lasts through May or even June. This meant that the working season was very restricted.

The second component involved the pre-trenching and post burial of the Chayvo Offshore Pipelines. ‘This included the construction of a cofferdam at Chayvo beach in order to allow the offshore pipelines to be pulled ashore. Van Oord Offshore completed the dredging of the offshore pipeline trench with a cutter suction dredger and the trailing suction hopper dredger “Volvox Asia”. Following installation of the pipeline, the trench was backfilled and we removed the temporary cofferdam works on the beach. We also installed rock scour protection around the concrete structure of the Orlan Offshore Platform in the Othovsk Sea’.

IRO NEWSletter AUGUST 2006 published twice a year

Ormen Lange and Dolphin Another special project in which Van Oord Offshore is still closely involved is the Ormen Lange Project for Norsk Hydro.

This project, according to Joep Athmer, started in 2004, and is set for completion in 2007. ‘Norsk Hydro awarded Van Oord Offshore a subsea rock installation contract for the years 2004-2007. This contract comprises the placement of 2.8 million tonnes of rock for support and protection of Ormen Lange’s pipelines and umbilicals from the shore base at Nyhamna in central Norway to the field development area.‘ The flexible fallpipe vessels Tertnes and Nordnes are deployed for this work. Thanks to a specially designed, powerful, ROV at the end of the flexible fallpipe, rocks can be dumped on this project with extreme accuracy to considerable water depths.

In the offshore deepwater section of this project, water depths range from 400 to 850 metres.

On the Dolphin Project in the Persian Gulf, Van Oord Offshore has also played a key role. This project entails the production and processing of natural gas from Qatar’s North Field and transportation of the dry gas by pipeline to the UAE. ‘For the shore approach near the Ras Laffan processing plant, Van Oord Offshore was subcontracted to excavate a 1500 metre trench as well as pulling ashore the two 36 inch sea lines and one 48 inch export pipeline. At Taweelah, we have been subcontracted to excavate a 5100 metre trench, and to pull to shore the 48 inch diameter export pipeline. Following completion of the pipeline installation, the trenches will be backfilled.

We will also be responsible for the placement of more than 200,000 tonnes of graded rock at different locations along the route of the sea lines and export line’.

Van Oord Offshore has recently formed a joint venture on the Dutch domestic market for the laying of a 48 inch gas pipeline, over a distance of 35 kilometres, across the IJsselmeer. This pipeline will be laid in a trench, which will subsequently be backfilled. ‘For the implementation of this project, too, we came up with an alternative solution’, concluded Joep Athmer. ‘These projects are good examples of Van Oord Offshore’s ability to work in any location and under any circumstances, in order to complete the clients’ ever more demanding projects’.

IRO Dutch Pavilions reports In the first half of 2006 IRO organised Dutch Pavilions at the following exhibitions: EWEC, Athens Greece.

This exhibition took place from 27th February to 2nd March 2006. The location was a musical theatre with a very specific interior. This was in some ways inconvenient during build up because of all the rules we had to observe.

Overall, IRO and her participants were satisfied with the outcome of the exhibition. The Dutch Pavilion, 99 sqm, was located close to the entrance and as a result had many visitors. According to Ruud Liem, our representative on site, EWEC 2006 was more focussed on onshore activities than on offshore.

Iran Oil Show, Tehran Iran.

Iran holds 11% of the world’s oil reserves and 15 % of the world’s gas reserves. At this moment Iran produces 3.18 million barrels per day. It is no secret that large investments are under consideration in the upstream as well as in the downstream industry. All these figures make that the region is very much the place to be. The 2006 oil show was in every way a big success. Almost 650 local and 490 international companies took part in this exhibition. The Dutch Pavilion consists of 168 sqm and hosted 12 companies. Participants were very positive about the exhibition and most of them indicated that they would participate again next year.

Offshore Technology Conference, Houston USA. This year’s OTC broke all its records from previous editions.

Next to the enormous hall in Reliant stadium two large tents where needed to accommodate all participants. Over 59,000 visitors attended OTC, the highest attendance since 1982. The Dutch Pavilion was (again) bigger than it was before with 15 companies represented in the IRO booth and 32 companies with their own booth. Space was sold out as early as September last year. IRO is now starting the acquisition for the 2007 show, with a large list of companies who have already indicated their interest in exhibiting.

Neftegaz, Moscow Russia.

The flexible fallpipe vessel Nordnes deployed for rock dumping works in the

Because of the importance of the Russian oil and gas industry, the interest of companies to participate in this exhibition is still growing. IRO had a booth in the Dutch group, initially organised by a number of Dutch companies.

In a later stadium of the organisation process they invited IRO to participate in and help organise the Dutch pavilion of 210 sqm. Although there were not as many visitors as in 2005, participants were overall satisfied about the contacts they made during the exhibition. IRO is convinced that Neftegaz is a very important exhibition were the Dutch should be present with a good looking pavilion.

framework of the Ormen Lange Project.

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PRINTING Veenman drukkers © IRO 2006

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