Nexen Petroleum Australia issued Clough with a Letter of Intent to decommission the Buffalo Field in the Timor Sea, 560km north west of Darwin, worth about $13 million but with scope for a potential increase to $15 million. Clough also announced contract wins with Woodside in WA, Kodeco in Indonesia and Apache Energy in the UK.

The company is also understood to have won the operations and maintenance support contract for ConocoPhillips’ Bayu-Undan project in conjunction with the Amec Group. Clough have not yet announced that award.

Nexen is planning to cease production from the Buffalo Field at the end of November with Clough contracted to carry out initial engineering for the plugging of the wells, disconnection of the FSPO and removal of underwater and surface installations.

Woodside awarded Clough a subsea contract worth between $7 million and $10 million for the Wanaea Cossack Lambert Hermes (WHCL) project on the North West Shelf. The company is planning to extend the development of the WHCL fields by drilling new development wells in 2004 adjacent to existing infrastructures.

Kodeco has awarded Clough’s Indonesian subsidiary PT Petrosea and PT Clough a Letter of Award for the KE40 project in the Java Sea off north east Java worth approximately $9.6 million.

Clough’s planned work for Kodeco’s KE40 project involves the transportation and installation of both 12km of rigid subsea pipeline and a production platform weighing 300 tonnes in 60m of water off Java.

Finally Apache has awarded Clough UK a contract to perform the Forties Field Echo platform riser repair in the North Sea. The scope of the Apache Forties Field Echo platform repair work in the North Sea involves the design, fabrication, installation and tie-in of a replacement 12" diameter steel riser for the main export pipeline from the Echo to Alpha platforms.

"These awards confirm the strength of the oil and gas market worldwide riding on the back of the current high oil price. We see this market continuing to bear fruit for Clough for the foreseeable future," David Singleton, CEO and managing director of Clough, said. "The contracts also reflect the strong focus across the Clough group on new business development and rebuilding our order book.

"The WHCL project is a fantastic opportunity to further strengthen Clough’s long-standing relationship with Woodside and help secure future subsea work with them and other clients in Australia. It’s good to be working with Apache again but in an area of the world where Clough has developed an extensive track record in subsea work in recent years."

The Bayu-Undan contract is understood to involve around 20 offshore personnel with another dozen in onshore support roles.