area report Australasia
on site scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2013. The project is scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of 2016. Recently, Chevron announced that its
Australian subsidiaries have signed a non-binding heads of agreement (HOA) with Chubu Electric Power Company for the delivery of 1 million tons of LNG per annum from Wheatstone for up to 20 years. Meanwhile, Inpex has also been busy putting into place the groundwork for further expansion. Through its subsidiary, Inpex Oil & Gas Australia Proprietary Ltd, Inpex has agreed to acquire a 17.5 per cent participating interest in the Prelude floating LNG (FLNG) project from Shell Development (Australia) Proprietary Ltd (SDA), a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell. The Prelude project is located in WA-44-L, approximately 475km north-northeast of Broome, off the coast of Western Australia, consisting of the Prelude gas field and the Concerto gas field. These gas
fields will be developed using
the FLNG facility, and will produce at least 3.6 million tonnes of LNG per annum, along with 0.4 million tonnes of LPG per annum, and approximately 36,000 barrels of condensate per day at peak. It is likely to be the world’s first FLNG project, with production start-up around 2017. The transaction is subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions including approval by the Australian government. Meanwhile, another major LNG project,
Pluto, was readying for start-up at the time of writing with first deliveries due to customers and project participants Kansai Electric and Tokyo Gas. Pluto involves an offshore platform in 85m of water, connected to five subsea wells. Gas will be sent through a 180km trunk line to the onshore facility located between the North West Shelf project and Dampier Port on the Burrup Peninsula.
The energy projects are prompting the
signing of spin-off contracts between companies in the support sector. SpeedCast, the Asian satellite telecommunications service provider, has announced Saxon Energy Services will be the first major customer for its newly launched DVB-S2 satellite service operating out of Perth. SpeedCast partnered with SatComms Australia, a provider of mobile and fixed satellite solutions and teleport operator, to specifically target the strong demand in the energy exploration sector. SpeedCast and SatComms will support Saxon Energy Services’ communications needs for major projects in Australia. Saxon is a rapidly growing international oilfield services company that operates a contract drilling and well servicing business for
oil and gas
exploration and production companies. It required satellite communications support for two gas exploration projects in the eastern and southern regions of Australia for both drilling rig and accommodation camp infrastructures. OSJ
40 I Offshore Support Journal I June 2012 Austal expands
Australian shipbuilder Austal is expanding its international network
Australian-based shipbuilder Austal has taken further steps to regionalise its operations to better serve and grow its international client base. Following the acquisition of its Philippines shipyard last year, the company has now broadened its sales and support organisations in the key Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East markets.
Austal’s chief executive officer Andrew Bellamy said the strategy would provide better service and results for customers, with an increased level of client contact.
Austal has established a new representative office for the Asia-Pacific region in Singapore. “With its extensive shipping and maritime interests, and strategic location, Singapore is a natural choice from which to develop business and other ties to the region’s navies and commercial shipping operators,” Mr Bellamy said. The office is headed up by Austal’s newly appointed Asia-Pacific regional manager, Colin Simpson. Based in the Asia-Pacific region for over 17 years, Mr Simpson has extensive experience and strong connections within the region’s marine, shipbuilding and oil and gas sectors.
Simon Smith, who has been representing Austal for nearly 13 years, has been appointed to the role of regional manager for Europe. He and his team are based in a new office in the UK. Guy Johnston has been appointed
regional sales manager, defence, for Europe. He brings extensive experience from the defence and IT industries, including 18 years within the BAE Systems organisation where he held a number of senior sales and marketing positions, and will be looking to expand sales to the European naval and paramilitary market. Austal also plans to continue the growth of its European vessel support presence which began with the establishment of a service centre in the Strait of Gibraltar in May 2010. Its support business provides marine maintenance, repair and consultancy services to the commercial, defence and private markets.
Austal’s capacity to service the needs
of clients in the Middle East has also been expanded through the addition of experienced personnel to the company’s United Arab Emirates office. Brett Reed has been joined by Cory Zachrisson, and they both work under the guidance of Michael McCourt, who recently took up the position of vice president Middle East. Mr McCourt has previously held senior managerial
roles in shipbuilding in
Southeast Asia as well as in procurement and vessel support at Austal’s head office in Western Australia. During that time he was instrumental in establishing the company’s regional service centres in northern Australia, Oman, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Hunt for phosphate begins
A hunt for rock phosphate has begun on the Chatham Rise off New Zealand, with exploration ship Dorado Discovery deployed on behalf of listed company Chatham Rock Phosphate. The vessel was originally used for gathering environmental data from the Chatham Rise, where scientists collected 17,000
photos and logged 60,000 observations, and will now be employed as experts work out how to best mine the phosphate that lies 400m under sea level. Dorado Discovery comes equipped with a Zeus 2 ROV for exploration work. The aim of
the project is phosphate for use in fertiliser.
www.osjonline.com to obtain
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