It is all about cooperation

Cooperation is becoming even more relevant now the challenges we face to provide our global societies with energy are increasing. Offshore oil and gas remain relevant, despite the important developments in unconventional oil and gas, like shale.

Column by Nils van Nood, Managing Director, GustoMSC

Reserves are being found in areas that present difficulties in terms of environmental conditions: primarily deeper, harsher and colder. Consequently, new solutions and technologies are required in order to facilitate exploration and production. Because the required solutions and technologies cannot be provided by one company alone, successful cooperation between companies and other organizations is fundamental to the development of our future.

GustoMSC has a long history of cooperation with other companies. In the early years of offshore technology, together with Shell the Gusto shipyard developed the first European jack-up Seashell (1959). This type of cooperation has remained key throughout GustoMSC’s history, and has involved contractors and national and international oil companies, but also equipment suppliers and research institutes.

When it comes to the oil companies of the past, it has often been concluded that primarily the IOCs were at the root of the technological developments; the NOCs were not associated with the greatest technological advancements. However, this has changed, as Statoil and Petrobras are now showing. We are therefore pleased to have had the opportunity to work intensively with both of these companies: most recently with Statoil, on its CAT J CJ70 jack-up projects, and prior to that with Petrobras on the development of its 28 deepwater drilling rigs, 15 of which will be built according to GustoMSC’s basic design. These projects are still successfully ongoing.

Besides a number of NOCs, the IOCs naturally continue to be key drivers for technological developments in our industry. We are involved in a number of IOC-driven developments in the fields of arctic exploration and 20kpsi drilling units. Our new Magellan drillship design is our generic solution to what we see happening in the market. We collaborate with operators like IOCs to incorporate their specific requirements. Excellent business relations with the NOCs and IOCs are fundamental in enabling us to develop the right solutions for the future, and we continuously strive to enhance and improve these relations.

A key ingredient in our successful cooperation with our clients is the freedom our designs give them to build at the shipyard of their preference. It enables them to obtain a mobile offshore unit (MOU) to their specification in an optimum manner. The fact that over 75 MOUs are presently being contracted and constructed at more than 15 shipyards worldwide underlines the appreciation of our basic designs and our business model. As a result, the major shipyards across the globe have become valued users of our basic designs and the associated equipment and support we provide.

Next to the larger scale cooperation with external parties, also internal cooperation remains extremely important to the success of our company. We are pleased that our company is steadily growing based on this success.

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