Boskalis Anticipates Long Oil Downturn But Buoyed By Integrated Offering

Royal Boskalis Westminster, which has expanded rapidly into the offshore market during the boom in the offshore oil and gas industry when the oil price was high, says it expects the low oil price to continue to have a damping effect on opportunities in the industry for some time, but will continue to promote integrated offshore solutions in the offshore oil and gas and offshore renewables sectors.

Speaking at last month’s Pareto conference in Norway, Boskalis group director Bram Gräber told delegates that Boskalis was pressing ahead with its fleet rationalisation and cost reduction programme, but would continue to promote integrated offshore solutions in both sectors, and seek opportunities that strengthen its competitive edge. This would include collaborating with clients to “cut complexity and increase cost efficiencies”, Mr Gräber said.

Mr Gräber told the conference that Boskalis benefited from a “very solid balance sheet” and would continue to bid for a growing range of offshore work. Having long operated as a dredging and marine contractor, Boskalis’ offering in the offshore market now includes offshore support services; inspection, maintenance and repair; installation; decommissioning; wet and dry transport of heavy structures and modules; transport and installation including mooring and hook-up, seabed intervention and landfalls for pipelines; platform and subsea infrastructure removal; and anchor handling tug/barge-based logistics support.

Boskalis has also quickly emerged as a provider of ‘balance of plant’ engineering, procurement, construction and installation solutions for turbine foundations, converter stations and cables for offshore windfarms. July 2016 saw the Dutch offshore, marine, heavy lift and dredging contractor awarded the balance of plant for construction of Aberdeen offshore windfarm, also known as the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC). The contract included all offshore elements for the windfarm, with the exception of the wind turbines, and is worth in excess of €100 million.

The company’s scope of the activity includes design, procurement, fabrication, supply, transportation and installation of 11 suction bucket jacket foundations and scour protection; procurement, supply, transportation and installation of 66kV inter-array and export cables by Boskalis subsidiary VBMS; and the provision of the wind turbine transportation and installation vessel. The foundations and cables will be transported and installed by assets including a fallpipe vessel, transport barges, a large floating sheerleg crane and a cable-laying vessel. Installation of the wind turbines will be carried out with an installation vessel supplied by Boskalis.

Source: osj