Ampelmann expands Russia presence with new Sakhalin office

Ampelmann, an offshore access solutions provider, has opened a new office in Sakhalin, Russia, in a move to expand its presence in the local market.

Ampelmann said on Tuesday that the office would be manned by a full-time team of two – operations engineers Cyril Kooijmans and Roman Andreev.

Joeri Poelmann, director of Ampelmann in the APAC region, said: “Establishing a local presence in Sakhalin enables Ampelmann to execute the projected growth in the market of winterized Walk to Work (W2W) systems.”

The company has been operating in Sakhalin since 2014 when it started working with oil and gas company Sakhalin Energy to provide offshore personnel with an innovative and reliable means to access oil and gas platforms at sea.

The company initially utilized the Ampelmann A-type system on a dedicated accommodation support vessel which has been on charter since 2014 for the non-ice summer season.

Since 2017, the two companies have been working together during the harsh winter season as well, with the help of the N-type system, designed to operate in temperatures as low as -28°C. In total, these systems have enabled over 154,000 safe personnel transfers to date.

Cyril Kooijmans added: “Adding Andreev to the team is also a great development as he is a local operations engineer who brings experience from the industry, has good knowledge of doing business in Sakhalin, and has expertise on the procurement side.”