Last month Neptune appointed Frank Crighton to the newly-created role of Middle East regional manager following some recent important wins to start building a local presence that enables it to do what it does best - offering a variety of locally based services, including fully integrated solutions when clients want it.

 

King told Energy News that Crighton has been located in the Middle East as Neptune already has two ROVs and stabilisation grouting equipment in the region but needed a permanent local presence there to better support clients locally.

 

"The requirement is you need to have equipment on the ground to react; you need a local base to support the equipment and you need a team, a permanent presence to be available at short notice to support existing assets in the region," King said.

 

It is on this basis that Neptune, which has facilities in Perth, Melbourne, Darwin, UK and Singapore, is building capability in both the Middle East and the US.

 

When King joined Neptune in 2010 it had an existing three-year inspection, maintenance and repair contract with Qatar Gas providing a vessel and integrated services including ROV, diving and survey.  

 

Now, the drivers in the current market have prompted Neptune to focus further afield  outside of Australia, Southeast Asia and the UK. 

 

In 2010 Neptune also had a presence in the US, however at the time it sold its diving business to focus closer to home. 

 

Much has happened in recent years however, and mid-last year Neptune expanded back into the US again at the behest of a European supermajor it has been dealing with extensively in the North Sea.

 

Neptune plans to grow its engineering capability in the US, and will initially support and service that region from the UK where it has an existing engineering capability and two manufacturing assembly and test facilities.

 

Its Singapore base had been servicing the Middle East until Crighton's appointment, but King said it became clear that a permanent presence was needed to be able to respond to clients' needs at short notice to support existing assets in the region.

 

"One of the things we're known for is to respond quickly when people have an issue," King, who led Technip's joint venture with Subsea 7 in a previous life, said.

 

"As a recent example in the UK, a client called our team on a Thursday night with the rig shut down with a problem. 

 

"Our engineers quickly came up with a solution, we put our manufacturing facility back onto 24-hour working, they worked through the weekend and by Tuesday we delivered them the solution which they installed offshore and the rig went back on stream."

 

 

Neptune also believes the Middle East - which has many assets, some of which are ageing -is a perfect fit for its patented dry underwater welding technology, Nepsys.

 

Nepsys was the technology that Neptune was originally founded to commercialise. 

 

Though Neptune had performed a number of jobs including a bilge keel repair on an FPSO in Australia, subsea inspection and remedial work on an offshore production platform in China and welded repairs to the legs of a mobile offshore production unit in Malaysia, the company believes the Middle East will open up yet more opportunities.

 

 

While there have been some recent large awards for the likes of Woodside Petroleum's Great Enfield and Greater Western Flank 2 developments, the overall volume of work has reduced, leaving many companies chasing the fewer opportunities.

 

Not only is there pressure from oil companies on pricing and contractual risk which filters down, companies like Neptune and their peers are all fighting hard to capture those opportunities, which puts pressure on margins.

 

"Australia is suffering from a ‘double whammy' because not only is the industry in a down turn but Australia is coming off the LNG construction boom which is unprecedented," King said.

 

Unlike the UK and Asia Pacific, the Middle East has generally retained an air of optimism, being a low-cost producer where projects appear to still be economic in today's oil prices.

 

Its offshore opportunities are also shallower, suiting Neptune's skill set in the IMR space.

 

 

In the UK Neptune includes ROV and survey service lines, with an engineering service line which does a lot of bespoke hardware and wells engineering analysis.

 

Its UK base also has a manufacturing, assembly and test business which, works extensively with the engineering service line to develop an engineered solution. 

 

It performs fabrication, and on the hardware side includes the likes of tree and production riser assembly and refurbishment.

 

It also sends staff offshore to help install its bespoke fabricated solutions.

 

"We've solved a number of wells problems for clients which needed a product to be produced and built and tested, then delivered, and we're about to do another one where we've come up with a solution," King said.

 

"We'll do the testing, building and manufacturing in our facilities just outside of Aberdeen then help them install it offshore."

 

Capitalising on these skills Neptune hopes to pick up its first US contract in the next few months to help the company achieve its ultimate aim of growing its engineering business.

 

Neptune's ability to offer an integrated solution when the client wants it is exemplified with a five-year deal with Oil Search in Papua New Guinea, where the Perth company completed a campaign last month.

 

Neptune chartered a vessel with a Singapore-based partner, then utilised its various service lines involved - diving, engineering, ROV, survey, asset integrity and stabilisation - to perform and extensive IMR campaign. 

 

"That's one of the things that makes us a bit different - we have the breadth of services as do the larger players, however clients can access individual service lines or a full integrated solution - which ever they prefer," King said. 

 

"In addition, our services often compliment the Tier 1 contractors' capabilities very effectively and hence we are used to working closely in support of some of the large well know contractors."