I was recently invited by Chamber member IADC’s North Sea Chapter regional director Stuart Clow and administrator Rochelle Sanders to tour the impressive Noble Intrepid - a high spec jack-up drilling rig currently located in the Port of Aberdeen’s South Harbour.
Dominating the south city skyline and giving folk a glimpse of the incredible scale of oil and gas operations going on, unseen offshore in the North Sea. Keeping the lights on, the country moving and thousands of people in work.
It’s in port for reactivation workscopes before being deployed on a project in Norway. Highly ironic and indicative of the issues facing our supply chain right now with little work in the UKCS and so our best equipment and people are being deployed overseas. A hugely concerning trend highlighted in the Chamber’s recent Energy Transition survey https://www.agcc.co.uk/economic-development/energy-transition
This is the second rig of its type that has now visited South Harbour for maintenance work - something that had never before been possible in the city due to the restrictions of North Harbour in a three-way collaboration between the Port of Aberdeen, Noble Corporation and Semco Maritime, has provided quayside services whilst in port.
Incorporating local resources is an important part of Noble’s strategies when working within the UKCS and they are to be commended for choosing Aberdeen to host this work which, in turn, brings significant positive economic impact to the region where previously this would have been realised elsewhere.
Anyway, back to my tour. I arrived at the Quayside on a sunny Wednesday morning to meet with Stuart, Rochelle and Noble rig manager Kyle Willox to head aboard the rig. Incredibly, having been back in Aberdeen for nearly a decade and with the Chamber heavily involved in trying to secure a supportive policy environment for the sector, it was my first visit “offshore” (even though that was kind of cheating as it was really onshore!).
We were given our PPE and a safety induction before setting off on what can only be described as a voyage of discovery. Most of us landlubbers just expect our lights and heating to come on when we need them, for our fridges to keep the beer cold, to be able to jump in our cars and head off…wherever. We don’t give a second thought to the incredible engineering, technology and highly skilled people that enable this stuff to just happen.
Kyle gave us an in-depth tour of the rig explaining (patiently) to me how it operated and the challenges the rig and the crews face in daily operations. I learned of mud engineers, drilling, cementing, testing, fluid recycling, production, well completion, abandonment, land restoration and much more that blew the mind of a pen-pusher! It was also rewarding to learn about the energy efficiency systems onboard Noble Intrepid, from the NOX reduction system, to the ESS (Energy Saving System) which allows the unit to operate at full capacity with only 50% of the generators functioning.
And we met with the OIM and some of the crew as well as enjoying a spot of lunch in the most excellent canteen after our close to three-hour exertion. We had certainly earned it with the number of steps we got in going up, down and around this giant of a facility.
We talk a lot in our communications and government engagement about our energy supply chain boasting the very best skills and expertise anywhere on the planet. This visit simply confirmed that, and some. Only further increasing my resolve that we should endeavour to do what we can to secure this in the UK for decades to come.
My thanks to IADC North Sea Chapter and Noble for making it possible.