Over the last 15 years, Van Oord Offshore – a subsidiary of dredging and marine contractor Van Oord from the Netherlands – has completed approximately 25 projects in Australia. Previous Australian offshore projects include rock installation for Woodside Petroleum and the dredging, shore approach, pipe pull and backfilling for ConocoPhillips’ Bayu-Undan project, located offshore Darwin.
Approaching Australia’s shores
Van Oord completes shore approaches for offshore gas pipeline projects. The company provides dredging, pipe pulling and rock installation services.
Mr Van der Wal explains the process. “The main contractors laying pipelines often have very large vessels that cannot approach the shore more than 2–3 km away. In general, the last 2–3 km of a pipeline is required to be buried. Van Oord will dredge the trench, and pull the pipeline from the shore into the trench where the main contractor is not able to lay the pipe. After that we backfill the pipe, either with the dredger or one of our rock installation vessels.”
Van Oord is able to contract large EPIC contracts, for which complete engineering, procurement, installation and commissioning of single point mooring (SPM) and gravity-based structure projects are performed.
Mr Van der Wal says that these projects require versatility. “It’s a total package which we can offer clients because of our expertise and experience.”
Recent developments
Recently, Van Oord completed the shore approach for ENI’s Blacktip Gas Field Development in Northern Territory, which involved dredging the trench, pulling of the pipeline and backfilling the trench.
Mr Van der Wal says that the project was located in waters with swell and a large tidal range. This, combined with the relative remoteness of the area, provided a challenge. “In the end the project was successful because we prepared the job very well and we used land transport where applicable and barge transport to be more flexible.”
The company also completed the shore approach for the Pluto Gas Field, owned by Woodside. Van Oord is currently executing the shore pull with one of its own
350 tonne winches.
Gas projects on the horizon
Van Oord is currently tendering for rock installation on Chevron’s Gorgon LNG Development.
The pipeline needs to be stabilised to withstand typhoons and as such the contract involves considerable quantities of rock.
On a yearly basis Van Oord places approximately 2 million tonnes of rock with flexible fall pipe vessels (FFPVs). Mr Van der Wal says “After Van Oord’s new built
27,000 tonne FFPV Stornes has entered the market, we will be able to expand our market share even further.”
The company has also been noting with interest Inpex’s development of the Ichthys Gas Field, located 850 km offshore from Darwin.
“As we did the Bayu-Undan project also coming from offshore to Darwin, we have the experience and know the soil and environmental conditions.”
Moving to the west
The Australian main office of Van Oord is located in Brisbane and provides dredging and marine construction services to customers throughout Australia. The company has recently established an office in Perth to further service the Australian offshore industry.
“We have a corporate culture that really fits in with the Australian way,“Mr Van der Wal says. “Basically we have setup an additional office in Perth because we want to show commitment to our clients in the oil and gas industry.
“If you want to understand your client and if you want to be involved in projects at an early stage, then of course it is very important that you are close and in the same time zone,” he says.
