I suspect the deal with Pictou has not been announced because its not complete yet. Only an agreement in "principle" so far.
Here's something I found interesting: The president of Mobil talking about MM Industra. I highlighted some interesting bits near the bottom.
soep.com
The following is the text of an address given by Jerry Anderson,
President, Mobil Oil Canada, to the Canadian Offshore Resources
Exposition conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, today.
Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for once again including
an update of the Sable Offshore Energy Project on the agenda of the
annual CORE conference. Our regular attendance here in the past 1few
years makes it feel like homecoming week.
I know that's the case for many of you - especially those of you who
have worked hard over the years to ensure the continuing success of
this conference. And also those who have been working hard this year
with our Sable team to ensure we're ready to go forward with the
project.
If we get the go ahead for our project later this year, and start to
build the foundations of a natural gas industry here in Nova Scotia,
then I'm sure many more Nova Scotians will also come to see this
conference as a homecoming.
I have to admit that when I accepted this invitation earlier this
year, I had hoped to be able to follow up on Ken Miller's closing
remarks to last year's conference _ you may recall, he said he hoped a
Sable representative would be on the platform this year saying that
"Sable is a go!"
Well, it is not yet a go but I am sure that if we are patient for just
a couple more weeks we'll have a much better idea of where we are
going when we hear the Joint Review Panel's recommendations.
Then, hopefully by the middle of November, we'll have the necessary
approvals from both governments and regulators in place. Once we get
that green light, the owners will be able to make the decision in
December to go ahead with the project.
I was asked to give you an update on where the project stands today _
here you see the overall schedule we and Maritimes and Northeast
Pipeline have been working to.
This year we have been focusing on milestones leading to the critical
owner sanction decision.
These include:
completing the Front End Engineering Design
getting the project alliance team assembled
getting our contracting processes functioning and well explained to
local companies
generally getting ready to build the offshore and onshore facilities.
acquiring additional seismic to better plan field development.
We have also gone through very complex and thorough regulatory
hearings into both the Sable and Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline
projects - jointly known as the Sable gas projects.
The 56 days of hearings ensured both projects were scrutinized by a
wide range of intervenors. Our Development Plans have been well tested
and we have every confidence that the Joint Review Panel will produce
a very complete report on them.
Now we are all standing by, somewhat like expectant parents awaiting
the birth of their first child.
I realize this period can be very frustrating for all involved -
especially those who hope to get contracts and employment as part of
the construction or operations phases.
I want to assure all of you who see the opportunities Sable and
Maritimes can bring, that while we're in a holding pattern right now,
we are continuing to plan and prepare for success.
In the meantime, our people have been busy here in Nova Scotia.
We opened our Halifax offices a year ago with accommodation for 35
employees. We have recently completed negotiations to lease more than
40,000 square feet of space and will be able to buildup staff levels
to a peak of about 175 by the middle of next year.
Many of our staff will be locals - for example Charlie Rogers from
Glace Bay is our Drilling Manager. He is assembling a team of 15
including five others from Nova Scotia. One of these is Blair
MacDougall, who as you may have read in the Chronicle Herald, is
currently training in the North Sea.
The facilities alliance has been formed and our new team members have
been fully involved in preparing and presenting our contracting
strategy to interested companies throughout the province.
Part of their early work includes developing contract packages which
might potentially be awarded to Nova Scotia and other Canadian
companies or which will attract high Nova Scotia and Canadian content.
Over the next two years we will be selecting, training and developing
an operations work force of more than 70 people - partly to staff the
gas plant which will occupy this site at Goldboro in Guysborough
County.
We expect to train about 50 Nova Scotian trades to operate and
maintain the facilities.
While training will mostly be locally based, these people will also be
sent to construction yards and to owner operations in the US Gulf
Coast to learn offshore operations skills. Training in health, safety
and environmental areas will be included.
We continue to see strong local interest in the project. We have
more than 500 Nova Scotia companies, registered on our electronic
bidding system run by BIDS Nova Scotia.
We are getting unsolicited employment inquiries from Nova Scotians at
a rate of 75 a week - to date we have over 1000 such inquiries.
A central database is being established for these. Our final
employment strategy will be in place in November in time for both the
construction and operations phases.
Evidence of the success of our contracting strategy is beginning to
become more visible, as you can see from this slide of the early
jacket construction at MM Industra's yard across Halifax harbour.
A number of other Nova Scotia businesses are already involved in
pre-sanction contracts in engineering and consulting services.
We have awarded contracts to MM Industra of Dartmouth for the early
jackets to support drilling at the Venture and Thebaud fields in 1998
and for the North Triumph deck and processing facilities.
As you can see from this slide, the yard is changing now as the
jackets begin to take shape.
Here you see a typical offshore platform which comprises a jacket or
support section and deck and topsides similar to those being built at
MMI.
I've mentioned just some of the tangible results of our efforts to
ensure we develop the capabilities we need here for the long term.
To date, where we have seen the need to build a long term capability
for our industry, we've awarded some contracts to Nova Scotia
companies and paid a premium above the low cost bid.
A Benefits Advisory Committee made up of community, government,
industry and project representatives meets monthly to consider the
project's progress with local benefits. It is from this committee that
we get feedback on our processes, helping us to overcome any
deficiencies.
In just six to seven months, one of our two drilling rigs is scheduled
to arrive in Nova Scotia waters. The Rowan Gorilla 2 is a sister rig
to the one anchored in Halifax Harbour last week _ so again, a
reminder of things to come.
We continue to keep the public informed of our plans and consult with
them. To this end, we have established three walk-in information
offices, in Halifax, Guysborough and Port Hawkesbury in Cape Breton to
meet the demand for information about the project, employment and
contracts. An average of 80 people visit these offices each week.
Our Nova Scotia-based website is being accessed by thousands of people
each month seeking both general project information as well as
procurement information. It was designed and built here in Halifax by
Vantage Communications and I'm told it is the largest site of its kind
in Canada.
This summer's survey crew on the 60 kilometer right of way for the
natural gas liquids pipeline from the gas processing facility near
Goldboro to Point Tupper included detailed input from local residents
assisting in locating the best route through the County.
The Sable Community Advisory Committee meets regularly to give local
communities the opportunity to participate in the project and provide
feedback on construction activities to minimize impacts and to get the
most from opportunities.
If you are down that way, you are likely to see our people utilizing
fishermen's boats for surveying, sampling and designing the offshore
pipeline approaches.
A Province-wide opinion poll taken this summer shows that all of our
consultative efforts are paying off.
|
