Back in the day, when I was much younger and my hair was black, subsea was small, but a bit sexy. At the time Subsea Engineering News was born in 1984, the companies that made subsea hardware were not very big nor very small. Most of them – here are a few names that one doesn’t hear much these days – such as Vetco Gray, Cameron Iron Works, FMC, Hughes Offshore, National Oilwell, et al, made more money on drilling-related equipment, ie wellheads and drilling risers, than they did on subsea xmas trees, completions and production risers. Control systems usually weren’t even part of their area of expertise. And, of course, they were all American. Of this group, only FMC, now part of TechnipFMC, remains in the offshore sector consciousness.
Waiting in the wings at this time were several very exciting projects, such as Texaco Highlander and Occidental Scapa, which were to bring subsea more to the fore, maybe even more so than Shell/Esso’s UMC (underwater manifold centre) which came into production in 1983. One might consider that multiple projects bring more light than a one-off, but that is up to interpretation. TBD.
The reason that I brought up the subject of companies and ownership were two press releases that crossed my desk last week. One was from Baker Hughes and the other from SLB, the company formerly known as Schlumberger. They had nothing to do with subsea, although each of these large entities recently reported on new subsea equipment contracts. At least SLB’s division or subsidiary has a name – OneSubsea. BH just reports on services to be rendered and equipment to be delivered.
It is just that all of these contracts are about commodities. Most offshore equipment now are now commodities. The days of exciting contracts of subsea equipment, maybe including some new and innovative, seem to be long gone. It seems sad to me, but probably this is how the manufacturers and most of the operators have long wanted it to be. Just another ham and cheese sandwich or maybe cookies out of a cookie cutter. Alas.
In my last missive, I mentioned a few offshore sectors with big finds contradicting an Equinor suggestions that there were no more giant fields to be discovered. I failed, though, to mention Suriname, the neighbour of Guyana and Brazil. No disrespect intended. I like to quote Joe E Brown with his famous statement at the end of Some Like It Hot, ‘nobody’s perfect’. Indeed.
