The global fixed platform “fleet” consists of over 7,700 installed structures, equivalent in unit terms to 58% of the mobile offshore fleet. Yet the significant role played by fixed platforms in generating requirement for offshore vessels and services (such as platform installation and IMR) is at times overshadowed by the role of the mobile offshore fleet. So what, then, is the current outlook for the fixed platform sector?

Back To Basics

Fixed platforms are immobile structures that are attached to the seabed and used to exploit offshore fields. All but 32 fixed platforms are located in water depths of less than 200m and the average water depth of the 7,744 installed units is 42m. Platforms usually consist of a ‘jacket’ (the legs) and ‘topsides’ (the decks), and are fabricated from steel, though concrete or wood have been used. Indeed, the first ever fixed platforms were wooden structures off California in the 1930s; these have been dismantled, but North America still accounts for 31% of the fixed platform “fleet”, a legacy of shallow water E&P in the GoM. Other major historical areas of fixed platform installation include the Middle East/ISC (15% of the fleet), SE Asia (22%) and the North Sea (7%). The North Sea is home to most larger structures, such as the 898,000t “Gullfaks C” gravity base platform. Most structures in areas like the Middle East and the US GoM, meanwhile, are at the opposite end of the scale – unmanned monopod/tripod well head platforms of less than 100t.

Construction Crunch

Historically, fixed platforms have been a core business area for a number of fabrication yards and EPCI companies. Installation of small structures tends to involve units like liftboats in the US GoM and crane barges in the Middle East. Larger structures (in the North Sea or West Africa) have required more robust transportation and heavy-lift vessels. At present though, the fabrication and installation outlook is subdued. As shown in the inset graph, 96 platforms were ordered in 2014, down 49% y-o-y; in 2015, 42 were ordered, down another 56% y-o-y. Most ordering has been for smaller units in the Middle East (14%, 2014-15) and SE Asia (39%): platforms like the 43,700t “Johan Sverdrup CPP” (North Sea) are exceptional. Reduced contracting is partly due to the weaker oil price, but it also reflects a longer term shift towards subsea developments and deepwater E&P.

A Shift To Services?

It seems, then, that outside of expansion projects in a few areas, the near term demand generated by fixed platforms is likely to be mainly from servicing existing units: facilities need maintaining, paint needs reapplication and so on. For example, long-term, multi-field IMR contracts have reportedly been awarded for platforms in the UK and Saudi Arabia in recent months. PSV and helicopter demand to supply manned platforms (and ERRV demand in the North Sea) will also persist unless fields are shut down. And even then, potential exists in platform removal: there are currently five planned decommissioning projects involving platforms, each project with a value of c.$400m.

So the fixed platform construction market is fairly challenged. But there are other ways in which fixed platforms can create opportunities. These may be quite niche or oblige EPCI companies to adapt, but with 7,744 units in place, the sector is in several regards still worth some attention.
Source: Clarkson Research Services Limited