Major Project Wins For Oil & Gas Services Company Accelerates Growth

Phil Black - PII Editor 09/09/2015

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A world renowned oil and gas services company is creating jobs, opening a new head office for its UK operations, and setting out ambitious growth plans for areas including the North Sea and Middle East

Fjords Processing is growing its global business as it uses its expertise to help operators with their cashflow by saving money and securing faster returns, especially on brownfield sites.

The company has over 600 staff across 17 countries – including nearly 50 in the UK – and has recently won three important contracts in Qatar, Australia and the Central North Sea, worth more than $35 million (£23 million).

These further strengthen the company’s growth ambitions following its success in winning three contracts for the delivery of process systems for the Johan Sverdrup development in the North Sea, announced in July.

The new UK base was unveiled last week in Frimley (Surrey, England) by chief executive Rune Fantoft. Recent advances have also seen offices well established in Dubai, two new posts created in Aberdeen and a similar number in Orkney where a £1 million upgrade has been completed at the laboratory and testing facilities there.

Further opportunities for expansion are being progressed in green and brownfield development. Fjords Processing can extend the life of mature fields where the company’s across-the-board services provide world-class, bespoke technology, equipment and expertise for operators to maximise efficiencies at a time of lower cash returns and restricted investment.

The company will outline its new branding and growth potential to industry representatives during Offshore Europe 2015 in Aberdeen this week (8 – 11 September).

CEO Rune Fantoft said: “We have a good news story for the industry. We are a key player in greenfield development, and the production optimisation we can provide in brownfield sites is also an attractive proposition to field operators at a time when they are particularly dealing with the pressures of curtailed capital spending and profits.

“Operators want to produce more oil even though they don’t want to invest that much into production. Our aim is to support them in realising this.

“We have a global presence but with a strong local focus and have the capabilities to understand and resolve many of the specific challenges facing operators. Being a supplier with a broad portfolio of processing wellstream technologies, we aim to design tailored and efficient solutions.

“Our capability to be a strategic partner on the full journey, from the drawing board right through the delivery of bespoke solutions to excellent aftercare services, puts us in a unique position. We can save them money, extend the life of current operations and help to ease cashflow pain.”

He said the business had been built on a wealth of experience and expertise acquired from around the world over the last 40 years.

Fjords Processing evolved from the division of the Norwegian company Aker Solutions. Opus, with its UK bases in Surrey and Orkney, was acquired in 2013 by Aker Solutions and formally changed its name from Opus Maxim to Fjords Processing Ltd on 1 September.

The three recent UK-won contracts are –

Designing and supplying produced water treatment and sulphate removal units in one package for a floating production storage and offloading vessel in the North Sea
Improving the capacity and performance of two separators on a production field off Qatar
Improving the capacity and performance of separation equipment on a gas field off Australia.