Interview: Maersk Supply growing in Aberdeen despite expected company sale

OET: You’ve mentioned some regions that Maersk Supply Service is interested in such as Mexico and Brazil. Can you comment on those markets, given that Mexican energy sector has just opened itself to foreign investments, and that the operators are really getting forward to getting acreage there?

Harris: Mexico is new for oil and gas but not new for Maersk company. We’ve been operating in Mexico for a number of years, and Maersk Supply Service has been there a number of times over last 20-30 years, but we’ve never established a full-time presence there. We foresee a number of opportunities there. There’s a lot of interest. But as with any emerging area, it’s not particularly easy.

The government and the country themselves need to ensure that they have the correct regulatory and taxation, and a functional framework in place to sustain an industry when they start opening up to other operators.

We see a number of opportunities there, but it might be a bit of a slow burn. Certainly, Maersk Supply Service and Maersk Group have got a huge amount of experience of going into new emerging areas and setting up businesses and being very successful in those areas.

In respect of Brazil, we’ve been in Brazil for thirty years. We’re one of the most established companies there. Before the downturn, we had one of the biggest fleets of anchor handlers in the market.

In the longer term, there’s a huge amount of decommissioning potential in Brazil as well that they haven’t even begun to talk about, so we expect to be in Brazil for a number of years to come yet.

OET: There’s something important that you’ve mentioned about Brazil. New contracts will come at reduced dayrates. How will this affect the suppliers? Or are you accepting the new reality that dayrates will never return to the pre-downturn levels?

Harris: It’s really a factor when the contracts were committed to. Obviously, they’re not all committed to at the same time.

We’re probably coming to the end of the good times in many places around the world, but the good news about that is whilst we have been working in these contracts, then the rest of the organization has been able to become more cost-effective and implement a number of cost reduction measures throughout the organization.
We are set up now as an organization to operate at lower cost environment.

Up for sale

OET: Maersk, your parent company, has put up its energy business, including Maersk Supply Service, up for sale. Does this change anything for you, in the way you operate? Are you in some way preparing to be sold, because Maersk said it was going to work to find a ‘solution’ for Maersk Supply Service by the end of the year. What does this mean for you?

Harris: There’s no change at all for us. We continue as ‘business as usual.’ Any decisions about the future of the company will be made by the Maersk energy division. I will find out like the rest of us in due course. But the message we’ve had from the top is: “Keep on doing what you’re doing, make sure that everybody is working safely, and the solution will be provided to us.”

OET: Does it affect your confidence in any way?

Harris: It certainly doesn’t change anything for us. We’re still a company that’s providing solutions and project management with assets and we will always try to deliver the best value and safest operations possible to our customers…

Interview conducted by Bartolomej Tomic, Editor, Offshore Energy Today