Highlights of the Week

Subsea World News has put together a recap of the most interesting articles from the previous week (August 19 – August 25.

American provider of equipment and services for the energy industry, FMC Technologies, and Norwegian oil services company, Aker Solutions, are planning additional workforce reductions, both at their subsea services businesses at Ågotnes, Norway.

FMC Technologies is reportedly letting go up to 200 workers as the company enters lower activity season on the Norwegian shelf.

At Aker Solutions, as many as 100 employees, mainly offshore workers, will be temporarily laid off, starting next month.

Technip is said to be looking into staff reductions at its UK North Sea subsea delivery business.

Technip UK Limited, a UK subsea engineering and construction division of the French oil services provider, is set to cut up to 130 jobs out of a total of 600.

The company claimed its decision being the result of difficult conditions in the oil and gas industry, specifically the subsea sector.

JFD has decided to undergo a restructuring process which includes an internal reorganization with, as the company says, unavoidable impact on a number of functions.

JFD, which comprises LEXMAR, JF Defence, Divex and the National Hyperbaric Centre and Defence Consulting Europe, said that the announcement comes following the company’s engagement with Brooks International consulting firm aimed at improving efficiencies during the oil and gas downturn.

NKT Cables is acquiring ABB’s global high-voltage cable system business with a total enterprise value of EUR 836 million (USD 934 million).

The business is part of ABB’s Power Grids division, which is currently undergoing a strategic review.

Norwegian shipowner Farstad Shipping will close down the management office in Melbourne as it concentrates its oil service activity in Australia to Perth.

Consequently, the Australian onshore organization will be reduced from 65 to around 30 employees.

Perth will facilitate both the headquarters and the operations centre, in addition to the company’s training and offshore simulation centre.