From the Sable page
soep.com
Check the part in bold. Still can't figure out why they call this site the MM Industra/Brown and Root yard. This is the MM Industra/American Eco yard - all the project is a joint project with Brown and Root.
Apr 20/98 Speech--"We're Off and Running"
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The following remarks were made by Paul Bennett, Vice-President, Nova
Scotia Exploration and Producing, Mobil Oil Canada, in a presentation
to the Eastern Canada Natural Gas Conference of the Canadian Energy
Research Institute in Halifax, April 20, 1998
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"WE'RE OFF AND RUNNING"
Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen.
I'd like to pick up from the macro view of east cost oil and gas
development offered by Jerry Anderson, a few moments ago to give you a
micro view of the Sable Offshore Energy Project.
Mr Chairman, much of what I have to say will not be new to you as it
will reflect the regular updates we give you as head of the CNSOPB.
But if you will bear with me I hope it will give others some idea of
the scope of the project, where we are at the moment, as the real time
pressures we are facing and what we might expect in the near future.
A year ago we were only in week two of the public regulatory hearings
and we all know how they stretched on till mid-July. The Joint Review
Panel handed down its recommendations at the end of October and we
received our final federal and provincial approval just after
Christmas.
The proponents gave their official sanction on February 11 when we
also inked the Facilities Alliance Agreement.
The regulatory process was prudent and thorough. Without prejudging
the outcome of the hearings the proponents had the difficult task of
making significant commitments before final approval if they were to
keep to the deadline of having gas into the Maritimes and New England
markets in late 1999.
PROJECT SCHEDULE
Our project schedule has changed very little from the day we first
showed it back in 1995. We have made some minor revisions though to
the construction schedule to ensure we could meet our targets within
the ever-shrinking time available.
We had to take risks involving millions of dollars as we brought
together our Facilities Alliance group to work with the engineering
and design teams to find new ways of integrating activities to provide
the best solutions.
Under ideal circumstances we would need around 27 months to bring a
project of this nature together.
We have just 19 months left.
FACILITIES ALLIANCE
With our seven alliance partners in place by last Fall, the proponents
stood to lose millions of dollars if these pre-sanction contracts were
not validated by December 31, 1997.
You can imagine what was happening in the last week of December when
serious decisions were being made to allow the global telephone calls
to go out on the last day - even the last hour in one case - to say
that the owners would standby the post sanction contracts even though
the owners had not made their final decisions.
But that is behind us now. Within the first hours and days of the
1998, full commitments were made to Nova Scotian, Canadian and
international companies for construction contracts, services and
supplies of materials and equipment worth around $1.5 billion.
Many of you will remember that we announced project go ahead in the
freezing rain at Goldboro on January 8 and that a month later on
February 11 all the owners had made their project approval decisions
and the Facilities Alliance Agreement was signed here in Halifax.
That was just nine weeks ago.
SAIPEM S7000
Jerry Anderson mentioned the Saipem S7000 in his talk a few moments
ago. This giant heavy lift vessel was in this harbor just over a month
ago to pick up the Venture and Thebaud drilling jackets which had been
fabricated across the harbor from here in Dartmouth.
THEBAUD JACKET
I am very happy to say that these jackets are now in place on location
near both the east and west ends of Sable Island and the vessel is now
steaming back to the North Sea to meet other contractual commitments.
It will be back in August for more installation work at the Thebaud
central production platform location and the North Triumph drilling
jacket.
Saipem's excellent work in very difficult weather and sea conditions
was the first major offshore assignment in the life of the development
of this project, and it was completed successfully.
At this stage of the journey we are close to 10 per cent along the
progress chart for fabricating, constructing and installing the
facilities. By Christmas we should be near the halfway mark. We remain
on schedule and within our budget. All our alliance partners are fully
mobilized and with many of the subcontractors are starting their
activities as well.
ROWAN GORILLA 2
As you have probably noticed, the Rowan Gorilla 2 jackup drilling rig
is over at Dartmouth being outfitted for a tour of duty to drill five
wells at the Venture field.
This rig is being sublet to PanCanadian so they can economically drill
a shallow well in the Cohasset-Panuke trend. The rig will be returned
to SOEP in time to commence the scheduled drilling of the Venture
field this summer.
The Santa Fe Galaxy 2 jackup rig is due here in September/October to
move onto the Thebaud drilling jacket to drill five development wells
there before moving over to drill two development wells at North
Triumph. This rig is in the final stages of construction in Singapore
and is slightly ahead of schedule.
Sable is a global project. Nova Scotia is gaining world attention and
we have been fortunate in attracting the world's best to build a
lasting infrastructure in this province.
We have work underway in Dartmouth, Guysborough, Gulf of Mexico,
United Kingdom, Texas, Japan, Mexico, Singapore and Argentina. Most of
the materials and equipment we need will flow into the province this
year.
GOLDBORO SITE
Onshore, our alliance partner subcontractors have completed site
clearing and the earthwork contract needed to prepare the site is
underway. The Goldboro wharf reconstruction contract has been awarded
and the contractor is mobilizing to begin construction.
This wharf required rebuilding so that it can handle some of the large
pressure vessels needed at the gas plant which is only about two
kilometers away.
The new wharf will remain in place for the community's future needs
when SOEP's initial work is finished.
A concrete batch plant contract has been awarded to a Cape Breton firm
and within the next couple of weeks we expect to award contracts at
Goldboro for structural steel prefabrication, carbon and stainless
steel pipe fabrication, piling and foundation work.
We're in the process of finalizing land acquisition at Point Tupper
and expect to call tenders shortly for the preparatory work on the
site of the liquids processing (fractionation) plant. In October we
should see the liquids pipeline being laid across the Strait of Canso
from near Mulgrave to the Point Tupper area.
FABRICATION FACILITY
At Dartmouth, Mobil Oil Canada is completing a $2 million upgrading of
its dock for sublease to the project as a shorebase for the drilling
operations.
Fabrication of the North Triumph deck will begin this month at the MM
Industra/Brown & Root yard in Dartmouth, and the fabrication facility
is currently being set up at Fabco for the Thebaud living quarters
module.
At Sheet Harbor, east of Halifax, site preparation activity has begun
for the offshore pipe coating facility. Pipe has already started to
arrive at the site and the concrete weighting and anti-corrosion work
will probably begin in the next four to eight weeks. The work will
continue through to early in the new year.
The final year of the century will see 11 months of intense activity
encompassing the drilling of the development wells and the installing,
tieing-in and commissioning of all facilities.
The key point of the year will be in July/August time frame when we
install the decks at Thebaud, Venture and North Triumph.
We will begin gas commissioning by October and have the first gas
flowing on schedule in November.
Our Facilities Alliance team is now formally off and running. Most of
you have probably heard our expression of taking a step-by-step
approach through the pre-development process.
This enabled early engineering to grow in parallel with the pace of
the regulatory process. It helped us to keep costs to a minimum and
mitigate our financial risks.
We brought in our Facilities Alliance team early on with the promise
of bigger things to come. They took part in the risk and were able to
add their very practical experience to the engineering and design and
to develop their organizations so no time would be lost in
mobilization once we, as owners, received all the approvals we needed
to say "yes, let's do it!"
That's why, we have been able to ramp up construction so rapidly once
we gave the go ahead on the key contracts. It was literally only a few
hours after that decision came that steel was being cut and formed in
a variety of yards worldwide.
MAXIMUM VALUE
Sable is a seed project and our contracting strategy is designed to
gain the maximum value through this first phase for Nova Scotia. It is
in our interests to continue the development of an infrastructure
which will enable a higher Nova Scotia content during the second phase
and for future development of the industry as a whole.
The Nova Scotia content is on target with our forecast to ultimately
reach 43 per cent by the end of the second development phase and 55
per cent for the project life overall.
In spite of all the extra challenges we have faced, we have stayed the
course, Mr Chairman, and our Alliance Partnership has shown its great
flexibility and its ability to deal with the unexpected.
The eyes of the oil and gas world are on this small piece of the
Atlantic.
We will meet our deadline for first gas because of the talent and
commitment we have in our people both within the project and alliance
teams, within our owner companies, within government at all levels and
within the communities in which we work.
Mr Chairman, Sable is moving ahead at a very fast pace. I hope my
comments have been helpful in providing a status report and indicating
where SOEP is going in the future. I welcome any comments the audience
or you yourself might have.
Thank you very much. |
