Offshore Oil & Gas consultancy engagements

Equipment

• Identified construction / lay barges that could be acquired for projects in Asia and evaluated the option of building new equipment
• Tracked and assessed planned offshore projects in the Gulf of Mexico and West Africa, a multi-year assignment performed for a consortium of Norwegian offshore oil and gas equipment suppliers
• Assessed future requirements for deep water drilling units, construction vessels, shuttle tankers and floating production facilities
• Assessed future requirements for propulsion and manoeuvring systems in offshore drilling units, construction vessels and support vessels
• Developed a detailed business plan for establishing an offshore production module fabrication facility on the west coast of Norway, prepared for a consortium of Norwegian shipbuilders
• Prepared more than a half dozen market positioning studies and business plans for shipbuilders considering entry into offshore equipment fabrication
• Assessed the feasibility of using a newly developed portable turbopump for emergency oil recovery for which IMA received an award for technical excellence from NASA

Finance

• Evaluated possible financing facilities for offshore oil and gas projects, prepared for a major offshore construction contractor

FLNG / FSRU

• Analysed use of floating facilities for gas liquefaction and regasification and assessed the feasibility of utilizing an FLNG / FSRU supply chain to service a newly constructed power plant
• Identified LNG regasification projects in North and South America and evaluated their potential to proceed to development

FPSO

• Assessed future supply / demand conditions for a midsize FPSO and identified potentially suitable projects where the production unit could be redeployed should the field operator not exercise its extension option at completion of the firm portion of the lease
• Identified potential redeployment opportunities for an newly built FPSO for use on a shallow water / heavy oil field offshore Brazil, evaluated the suitability of utilizing the unit on each of the alternative projects, identified the type modifications needed and the approximate cost of the modifications for use in each project and estimated the market value of the unit under several sale scenarios
• Assessed the mid / long term demand outlook for floating production systems, profiled the competitive landscape in the industry value chain and benchmarked strengths/weaknesses of 20 major players in the floating production sector
• Surveyed and documented shipyard progress in completing conversion of an FPSO in Singapore, identified issues impeding delivery schedule, estimated range of expected final capex, examined the shipyard contract and field charter to identify terms impacting project partner liability and assessed likelihood unit will remain on field through option period and/or redeploy
• Reviewed the field lease contracts of a major FPSO contractor, evaluated remaining life on field of each unit, examined contract opportunities available to redeploy several units coming off field, projected the company’s mid/long term cash flow outlook and assessed capability of the company to roll over long term debt at maturity.
• Assessed the effective life of an FPSO operating offshore Australia, prepared for a major FPSO contractor in connection with a dispute with local tax authorities over the appropriate depreciation period
• Analysed capex trends for FPSOs and assessed the reasons for differences in capex between leased and owned units
• Profiled the redeployment history and lease extensions of FPSOs and FSOs and projected reuse availability of existing units based on likely field end dates
• Analysed the future demand / supply balance in the global FPSO market
• Analysed underlying market drivers influencing deep water production and forecast requirements for floating production systems
• Evaluated the advantages and issues related to utilizing submerged turret technology for offshore loading and floating production
• Analysed the basis for setting contract rates for FPSO vessels and compared rates for vessels currently in use
• 70+ multi-client reports on the floating production market since the mid 1990’s.

FSU

• Evaluated the feasibility of utilizing surplus VLCCs for floating oil storage as part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve

Fuels

• Reviewed the status of projects to utilize CNG carriers to tap stranded gas and assessed prospects for future CNG ship orders – updating a previous study
• Analyzed the feasibility of utilizing modular gas-to-liquid plants on FPSO vessels to tap stranded gas on offshore fields
• Assessed developments and policies impacting future ethanol demand and supply and evaluated ethanol logistics requirements through 2017
• Prepared a detailed feasibility study of utilizing barge mounted plants for methanol and ethanol production
• Benchmarked the relative competitiveness of building floating methanol plants in the US and Japan

Infrastructure

• Analyzed the commercial applications for a tethered floating breakwater and evaluated the cost and benefits associated with the system

Midstream

• Evaluated pipeline export vs. shuttle tanker offtake in the Gulf of Mexico and estimated requirements for shuttle tanker construction over the next decade
• Evaluated the likely production/export solution for future deepwater projects in the Gulf of Mexico
• Assessed the potential for transporting gas via pipeline from Iran to India, prepared for a major Italian offshore construction company
• Evaluated the feasibility of utilizing shuttle tanker offtake as an export solution on remote ultra-deepwater fields in the Gulf of Mexico

Operators

• Assessed risk factors in offshore E&P following the Macondo oil spill, categorized E&P risk drivers and ranked each on scale of importance, profiled ability of field operators and contractors to manage risk, assessed impact of new risk environment on insurance cost and evaluated extent to which heightened risk jeopardizes the viability of smaller players