01

02
Introduction
Clever engineering around the world

03
Field Development
Strong year brings £5million in wins

The newsletter for Xodus Group clients & employees May 2018 05
Growth
New investor comes on board

06
North Sea
Permit perfection

08
Africa
Advising Africa’s M&A activity

12
Middle East
Framework agreement signed

11
Asia-Pacific 14
Renewables
APAC team grows following Japanese tidal opportunities
batch of new contract wins

May 2018
Introduction
Clever engineering
around the world
From Iraq to Senegal, Tunisia to Papa
New Guinea and many places in
between, our team has been busy
solving engineering challenges for our
clients so far this year.
02
The projects have been diverse – with our multi-discipline
capabilities coming into play – often complex and undoubtedly
fulfilling. You can see a taster of our international reach in this
edition of Xtra.
We are also proud to have welcomed a new investor this year,
showing great confidence in our future plans. Subsea 7 has
come on board with Chiyoda Corporation of Japan also retaining
an interest in Xodus, to further enhance our capability whilst
we continue to provide independent engineering and advisory
services to the energy industry.
We increased our engagement with Asian E&P clients after
we welcomed Chiyoda as a shareholder in 2013 and now look
forward to further enhancing the development of Xodus, with a
robust plan in place to grow key areas of our business.
This year has also brought resurgence in front-end engineering
projects as markets demonstrate further recovery and you can
read about some of our recent field development work (page
3). Demand for decommissioning, subsea and environmental
services has enabled Xodus to recruit more specialists in recent
months and we are also hosting open days to attract new
graduates across our offices.
We continue to have a focus on innovation and our XAMIN tool
(page 13) is a perfect example of how we intend to provide more
efficient ways of working to our marine renewables clients. We
will be showcasing this further at All Energy this month.
Steve Swindell, Managing Director

May 2018
Field Development
Strong year brings
£5million in wins
Over the past twelve months, we have
won more than £5million worth of field
development work which coincided
with our 10,000th assignment as
a company – a subsea front-end
engineering and design (FEED) project
with Dana Petroleum in the North Sea.
03
We are also continuing our long-standing relationship with
Apache in the North Sea with the award of two projects. The
first project is the conceptual design and FEED work associated
with the Storr development. The Storr field is a single well, gas
condensate development planned to be tied back to the existing
Beryl Alpha platform.
We will initially complete a conceptual assessment to streamline
the options under consideration before embarking on the FEED
for the selected option. The scope includes subsea pipeline
design, flow assurance, materials and corrosion engineering
coatings selection and structural and environmental support.
The second award was for subsea engineering associated with
Apache’s Seagull development. We previously completed the
concept selection phase of the development and this new award
takes the design of a planned tieback to the next stage. Like
Storr, the scope includes pipeline engineering, materials and
corrosion support, manifolds and structures engineering and
environmental impact support.
continued ›››
Image © Woodside
 04

May 2018

Development
Strong year brings £5million in field development wins

We have also won work with Woodside Energy (Senegal)

B.V to investigate the topsides design concept required for a
redeployed Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO)
facility at the Rufisque, Sangomar and Sangomar Deep (RSSD)
blocks located offshore in Senegal, West Africa.
This award followed earlier field development architecture
studies we performed for Capricorn Senegal Ltd (Cairn) to
identify and develop the field architecture for the deepwater SNE
oil field. In this new study, we determined the optimal topsides
configuration and operating conditions for the FPSO.
Further success in Japan, Australia and Africa brought the total
to £5million, including work outside of oil and gas.
Steve Swindell
Managing Director
“At Xodus, we are constantly looking at ways to improve
operations and reduce costs for our clients. The 10,000th
assignment is a significant milestone for the company and was
hard to imagine when the company launched more than twelve
years ago. Dana is one of our longest relationships so it’s nice it
was with them. We can now look ahead to the next 10,000.”

“We built our reputation on our field development expertise in the early days and
although we are now a much more rounded company working in renewables and
decommissioning, it is really encouraging to see that our clients continue to show
faith in our talented team at the early stages of a project.”

Image © Woodside

May 2018
Growth
New investor comes
on board
We recently welcomed Subsea 7 as
a new shareholder with a 60% equity
interest. Chiyoda Corporation of Japan
has retained a 40% interest.
05
With support from both parent companies, we plan to enhance
our capability whilst continuing to provide unbiased engineering
and advisory services to the global energy industry. We have
also strengthened our operational leadership team with key
appointments across the business.
Rebecca Hewlett, has taken up the position of operations
director for Middle East and London. Rebecca has over 20 years’
experience in energy and infrastructure consenting and has
worked on diverse international offshore and onshore projects.
Simon Allison is heading up our Perth operation as our
operations director for Asia Pacific. He joined Xodus in 2011
and is an experienced process and flow assurance engineer.
He has over 20 years’ oil and gas experience in many countries
covering a range of disciplines.
Andrew Wylie is operations director for Scotland and Norway.
He is a chartered mechanical engineer and has several years
of subsea project management experience for both FEED and
EIPC scale projects across UK and Norwegian waters. He was
previously Scotland Subsea Manager, having joined us in 2010.

May 2018
Lesley Sinclair
Compliance Lead
North Sea
Permit perfection
Based in our Orkney office, Lesley
Sinclair has extensive experience of the
oil and gas permitting and consenting
process in the UKCS and has
successfully managed and supported
many clients over several years.
06
We caught up with her to find out more about her role.
What does your role involve? I manage a dedicated in-
house compliance team where we prepare and manage all
environmental application types, ensuring that we deliver high
quality and technically accurate applications, mainly for the oil
and gas industry. We currently provide a significant proportion of
permit applications in the UKCS (approximately 30-35%).
I manage a team of 14 and one of the unique attributes to the
team is that we have been able to retain a significant proportion
of senior personnel who have worked in compliance since the
onset of key legislation and industry standards. We have grown
with the changing requirements of the regulator, from Petroleum
Operations Notices (PONS) to the current Oil and Gas permit
system – Portal Environmental Tracking System (PETS).
In this respect, we are a highly experienced with exceptional
technical knowledge of compliance processes and data
requirements. The experience gained from the same personnel
working with many operators since the onset of legislation
provides Xodus with a unique understanding of changing
regulatory expectations.
My main role is to manage a range of compliance projects,
provide technical and legislative advice to both clients and
internal staff, provide training, implementation of compliance
procedures and guidance documents to both clients and for
internal requirements.
I also undertake compliance audits, business development and
recruitment for the company and provide environmental advisors
on secondment.
continued ›››

May 2018
North Sea
Permit perfection
What are the main challenges of securing a UKCS permit?
One of the main challenges to ensuring a fast approval process
of a permit by the regulator is understanding the current
environmental data requirements. The experience gained
from working with many operators provides us with a unique
understanding of industry requirements and any problems or
issues faced.
We document any regulator or statutory comments that we
receive in our regulator comment database and this central
database of comments increases consultant efficiency time
in preparation of permits which has led to a decrease in
the number of comments received. We have an enhanced
understanding of regulator wide expectations and are applying
these to the permits we prepare, and this ultimately has allowed
timely approval by the regulator.
Are permits constricted to offshore work? Although we
undertake a considerable number of offshore permits and
consents, we do have the expertise and capability to provide
nearshore and onshore compliance support. These can
include, but not limited to, marine licence applications for
renewables and cable laying. Also, works licence applications
which are carried out within harbour or port limits, controlled
activity regulations (CAR) required for SEPA and EU ETS and
PPC permits.
07
At what stage should a company approach Xodus about
compliance? At the very latest, permits require two to four
weeks of preparation time so ideally two months prior to
operations. However, for planning purposes, it is preferable that
we gain an understanding of the projects as early as possible
in the process, particularly for larger and more complex
developments. This allows our teams to provide support and
advice upfront to ensure that all aspects are considered and
there is a good understanding from our clients on the process
and data requirements.
Why should businesses come to Xodus? We have a
flexible team and are dedicated to meeting our client’s needs
with specialists in production, wells, subsea, geophysical,
atmospherics, renewables, cable laying. Our clients are
extremely satisfied with our approach to compliance
management and this is demonstrated through our long-
standing relationships with many clients. We pride ourselves
in providing a high quality, value for money product,
producing well-written, easy to read, visually appealing public
documents. We have a pro-active independent relationship
with the regulator and statutory consultees allowing a clearer
understanding of comments which ultimately improves the
overall approval process. We also continually strive to look for
ways to make our processes more efficient and have developed
innovative tools to support the team and our clients.

May 2018
Africa has seen relatively subdued M&A activity over the
last three years (see image). In part due to the low oil price
environment but even when compared to the rest of the world
over the same period, the $15 billion total is modest. Also
notable is the fact that the big deals of 2015-17 mostly came
image
from corporate sources, with only ~10% sourced from private
equity (PE) companies.
Africa
Advising Africa’s
M&A activity
Large deals of note in the last three years:
› At the end of 2017, ExxonMobil paid Eni $2.8bn for a 25% stake
in the company’s Mozambique gas resources, a move by the
company to firm up its LNG future strategy. Having ExxonMobil
as a partner in this type of resource base is a solid move by Eni
and should help them reach commercialisation sooner.
› In Q3 2015, Sonangol and Cobalt signed an agreement for
Sonangol to acquire Cobalt’s 40% participating interest in
blocks 21 and 20 offshore Angola for US$1.8bn. The blocks
contain commercial reserves of approximately 800 MMbbl.
› In Q3 2017 (largest PE deal) – Assala, backed by Carlyle
Group, acquired Shell’s onshore assets in Gabon for ~$650m.
08
Significant risks remain in Africa including operational issues,
access to infrastructure as well as political concerns, however,
most areas have seen improvements over the past few
years. These improvements, coupled with converging buyer-
seller valuations driven by improved oil price stability, is
anticipated to lead to increased activity in Africa in 2018 and
beyond. This stability is giving potential buyers confidence to
make longerterm assessments about asset value, and seek
opportunities they see in the ‘new normal’ $50-$70 oil and gas
future. Perhaps surprisingly a continued rally in oil price towards
$100 may in fact decrease levels of M&A in the short to midterm
as buyer-seller valuations could diverge leading to delays in
decision making until stability is realised.
We expect M&A activity in Africa to increase as 2018 progresses
and into 2019 with more money coming in from overseas,
particularly from large PE houses. The challenges associated
with valuing oil and gas developments in Africa (particularly sub-
Saharan) are not often subsurface driven. The barrels are there,
but dealing with the surface issues and export routes is often the
key to understanding the true value risks and drivers.
Transactions in Africa can be complex, requiring multiple
technical and commercial advisors. Our advisory team can
integrate across subsurface and surface identifying the key
risks and translating this into commercial advice, underpinned
by technical understanding. We can provide a holistic view
capturing the full development lifecycle to our clients from the
sand face to point of sale, but through a single interface. Not
many companies can say that.
By challenging the status quo, asking the difficult questions and
combining insights from all types of businesses and disciplines
from data science all the way through to organisational
psychology, we can help shape the future of oil and gas in Africa.
For more information contact:
edward.spence@xodusgroup.com

May 2018
Africa
Egypt office opens
with appointment of
new general manager
We have appointed our first general
manager in Egypt as we aim to build
on our track record in the country and
target upcoming new contracts.
Salah Farid Tantawy joins from PICO Petroleum Integrated
Services where he was most recently project general manager
for the Amal-C platform installation in the Gulf of Suez. Salah
has 37 years’ experience working in oil & gas, having started
his career as a project engineer. Before moving to PICO, he was
chairman assistant (VP) for projects with Gulf of Suez petroleum
(GUPCO) – BP’s JV for oil production in Egypt.
09
Salah said: “Xodus has gained a strong reputation within the
country over the last few years so I know I am joining a very
experienced team with capabilities throughout the lifecycle of
an asset. I hope my experience in managing multimillion dollar
projects and my knowledge of the Egyptian oil and gas sector
will help in attracting new business as well as reinforcing already
established partnerships.”
Since 2013, we have won over £2 million in contracts in Egypt.
Much of that work was previously won and carried out by the
Aberdeen and London offices, however research found that
an established base was required to increase business in the
country.
The new office is located in the Maadi district of Cairo, which is
central to many oil and gas company operational headquarters.
Managing Director, Steve Swindell said: “Over the last five
years we have been collaborating with international and state
organisations in developing upstream projects and increasing
value of their assets. During this time, we have undertaken
many scopes ranging between FEED work, advisory services,
engineering studies and operational asset support assessments
for major and independent oil and gas companies.
“Such a track record has established our reputation within the
Egyptian market as a reputable and competent consultant. With
the addition of Salah and a new office it means we can engage
with clients and deploy our services quicker which we hope will
lead to us gain considerable new business.”
For more information on Egypt contact:
salah.tantawy@xodusgroup.com

May 2018
Africa
Decommissioning
study delivered for
TPS in Tunisia
We have delivered a decommissioning and abandonment study
for wells, surface and subsea facilities in Tunisia on behalf of
Thyna Petroleum Services (TPS).
We developed a decommissioning cost estimate for four
onshore fields, one offshore field and two onshore storage and
processing sites. The six-week study provided a high-level risk
and opportunities assessment and reviewed regulatory and
environmental aspects for facility and infrastructure removal.
The scope of work also included the creation of an asset
register, the development of an abandonment strategy and site
remediation in line with current industry best practice and in-
country regulations. The study allows the joint venture partners
10
to define their cost liabilities towards decommissioning as well
as a timeline for the project.
Tunisia and North Africa are growing areas for decommissioning.
Last year, we delivered a similar scope of work for a large
offshore complex in Tunisia. We also performed a study of
decommissioning procedures in Tunisia compared to the North
Sea – understanding the regulatory regimes and execution
practices to include in cost estimates and methodology.
Managing Director, Steve Swindell said: “This project was a
success as result of the support the TPS team has provided
through the project team and close interaction with the Xodus
project team. We have conducted similar types of work in the
region and this experience was vital in advising TPS with this
important project. Our integrated decommissioning capability
means we can offer practical knowledge and experience of the
regulatory framework for decommissioning, as well as cross-
discipline technical safety and environmental support, integrity
support and cost modelling expertise.”
Mr Nizar Taga, TPS finance manager said: “The study achieved
the objectives set out and Xodus’ project team was successful
in applying its deep understanding of decommissioning to
inform the JV partners the key drivers that can materially
impact the overall decommissioning cost and schedule.
Xodus highlighted the risks and mitigation strategies that, if
implemented, would reduce several of the inherent uncertainties
associated with decommissioning a multi-asset field.
“There was a tight schedule for the work with uncertainty over
data which Xodus successfully overcame through use of in-
house tool. We are very pleased that Xodus had the capability
and expertise to deliver this quality work to the partners
requirements.”

May 2018
Asia-Pacific
APAC team grows
following batch of new
contract wins
Our Perth office has won more than
£2million (A$3.5 million) in new
contracts over the last six months.
The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region has had significant success in
the growth of its decommissioning business, both in Australia
and South-East Asia, where we have established relationships
with several key players. We have also enhanced its digital
production optimisation and monitoring tools.
11
With the success, our workforce has grown locally and Simon
Allison is operations director for the APAC region.
Simon is responsible for the management of the group’s office
including business development and growing strategic new
markets while also maintaining an active technical role in
projects, including project management.
Mr Allison has worked in the oil and gas industry for more than 20
years after graduating with honours in Chemical Engineering from
the University of Melbourne. After starting his career as a process
engineer, he later specialised in the field of flow assurance.
“It’s a huge honour to lead the APAC team in Perth and we
have had an excellent year with some significant contract wins
and the addition of new members of the team,” Simon said.
“We continue to grow and enhance our digital production
optimisation and monitoring tools.
“Over the next few months, we’re targeting sustained and
supported growth while increasing our offering in the company’s
core business areas of advisory service, field development,
projects, asset support and decommissioning.”
Digital Asset Manager, Andy Jones, will be presenting with
Origin Energy on ‘The effective use of data analytics in an
advanced compressor performance and degradation monitoring’
at the APPEA 2018 Conference and Exhibition in Adelaide on
Wednesday, May 16.
 12
Our scope of studies will include new projects, expansion of
existing facilities and the identification of potential export routes.

May 2018 “This agreement will allow us to build

on our experience with Al-Shaheen and
increase our integration with Chiyoda.
Chiyoda Almana, the Qatari entity, will
support us in pre-FEED activities.”

Middle East Rebecca Hewlett

Operations Director
Framework agreement London & Middle East

signed with North Oil

Company
The oil field, situated off the north-east coast of Qatar, is one
We have signed a three-year of the largest and most complex of its kind in the world. Its
100 million barrels per annum comprise 45% of Qatar’s oil
framework agreement with North Oil production.
Company to deliver a variety of work Al-Shaheen includes 33 platforms including five production
for Al-Shaheen, Qatar’s largest oil field. hubs, spread over nine different locations across the field.

Positive vibes in the Middle East

Work is on the up again for the vibration team in the Middle East. Over the last six months we have been supporting the likes of
Zadco, ADNOC, Tebodin, NOC, Oxy Qatar and Qatargas on various projects. The vibration team is also expanding into the Asia
Pacific region through a tie-up with SVTT. Since the first business development visit, six proposals have been submitted to date.

May 2018
We have completed our initial project with Scottish Enterprise to
develop our integrity management software tool, XAMIN (Xodus
Asset Management and Integrity Network) for all clean energy
technologies and extend the functionality to capture and monitor
live data from offshore marine renewable assets. The funding
has allowed us time to gain insights and feedback from industry
to ensure that the product meets the needs of the users.
Toolsets
XAMIN-ing a new
sector
We have liaised with operators and test centres to develop
functionality such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
during this development stage. XAMIN was initially developed to
provide high-level services for major oil and gas operators in the
North Sea and was well received from within the sector.
For one operator, the introduction of XAMIN allowed it to cut its
traditional Pipeline IM budget by 25% and free up the engineers
to focus on reducing the risk picture of the asset. We believe
the renewables sector can learn lessons from the oil and gas
industry where poor data management is causing problems
when identifying component condition or proving life extension.
The tool can now provide operational integrity management for
offshore wind, tidal, wave, structures and cabling. It can be used
13
to schedule inspections and maintenance activities, capture
results for future trending, assess anomalies and assign actions
for remediation during future campaigns.
Mike Allan, senior consultant said: “As a lifecycle asset tool, we
believe XAMIN will benefit renewable projects, capturing design,
installation, testing, operating, inspection and decommissioning
information in a single system. This will reduce data losses,
increase efficiency of data access, improve visibility of integrity
issues and importantly for developing technology, allow issues
to be identified quicker. Within the operational phase XAMIN
can collate all information being measured on the asset and
cross reference to allow a complete picture of operability and
integrity. Once collated, data can be used to benchmark design
assumptions and reduce safety margins or increase field life.
Richard Knox, Managing Director, EC-OG said: “We believe
controlling operations and maintenance costs will be a big
challenge to the marine renewables sector and it’s something we
have considered throughout the early stages of developing our
Subsea Power Hub technology. XAMIN has the potential to help
us, and the industry as a whole, with its powerful combination of
information on demand and established integrity processes.”
XAMIN can adapt to work with the functionality and requirements
of each individual asset. It can be developed to fit with the
processes of the company that requests it rather than forcing
engineers to adapt their methods to fit within rigid software.
To discuss XAMIN or your O&M plan and input to the
research being performed with the help of Scottish
Enterprise contact mike.allan@xodusgroup.com

May 2018
Renewables
Targeting Japanese
tidal opportunities
with Atlantis
We have signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) with Atlantis
Resources to pursue the development
of a tidal energy project in Japan.
14
The ambition for this agreement is to secure funding and
establish a commercially viable tidal energy demonstration
project of three to eight turbines in the country. We visited Japan
earlier this year to meet with government departments, supply
chain and utility companies to promote the collaboration and
join the lobbying effort for the general promotion of tidal energy
as a credible future energy source in Japan.
Atlantis is a global developer of renewable energy projects with
more than 1,000 megawatts in various stages of development
including the world’s flagship tidal stream project, MeyGen.
We played a pivotal role in the creation of the environmental
statement as lead consultant in the environmental impact
assessment for the project.
Pete Tipler, Principal Consultant at Xodus Group said: “Over the
last few years, have built up strong connections in Japan through
Chiyoda and we look forward to progressing this opportunity with
Atlantis. We have a long and trusted relationship with Atlantis
from the early days of their turbine testing at the European
Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) and through the MeyGen project
and can rely on the experience of their team to understand the
opportunities and challenges of developing a tidal project in
Japan. Together, we need to prove tidal energy as a competitive
renewable energy source for the country.”
Tim Cornelius of Atlantis Resources added: “We are looking
forward to working alongside Xodus pursuing development
opportunities in this exciting market. This is a continuation
of our long established relationship over many years at the
MeyGen project that has seen the tidal stream sector move from
demonstration to operations of commercial scale arrays. We look
forward to replicating this success and have already commenced
pursuing several project opportunities in Japan together.”
Image © Atlantis Resources

May 2018
New capability
Surge analysis
Working together with an integrated
project team, including the client
operations team and a naval
architecture design contractor, we
have developed a market leading
transient surge analysis capability for
Marine Buoy Offloading systems.
15
We have recently completed work on the design verification of
two refined product transportation systems to and from offshore
SPM buoys via a subsea pipeline end manifold (PLEM).
Our recommendations resulted in the redesign of the control
system and the cause and effects which eliminated the need for
offshore surge accumulation tanks and relief valves. By looking
at the failure elements from an operations perspective, we could
prove all credible failure scenarios within the maximum allowable
surge pressure.
We worked with a marine breakaway coupling supplier to specify
the design of the coupling to prevent breakaway events over
pressuring the floating hoses while providing an ALARP design
for oil spilled in water.
The client was “very happy with the approach Xodus took and
the solutions delivered”. This project is a great example of where
our understanding of system dynamics led to lifecycle cost
savings and environmental benefits.
 16
The IRIS-M Motion Amplification System consists of a highly
specified video camera and a PC-based controller and capture
device. The software package allows standard recorded video
May 2018 images to be amplified, revealing the detail of vibration which
cannot be seen by the naked eye.

Vibration magnitude and frequency can be captured from any

point in the image allowing non-contact vibration measurements
to be made from significant distances away from the subject.

The system can be deployed and data recording can start

within minutes of a problem being identified, saving significant
time and costs associated with constructing scaffold access
platforms and/or organising rope access to difficult locations.

Vibration The IRIS-M Motion Amplification System is a fantastic addition

Cost saving device to the comprehensive suite of vibration measurement devices

available to our vibration engineers.

added to tool box For the assessment of a wide range of common machinery
problems the system is very powerful and in many ways
Our vibration engineers have added unparalleled.

a powerful new motion visualisation For the assessment of pipework integrity however, careful
capability to their suite of vibration consideration must be given to the data capture aspects and to
the interpretation of the data. As with so many things in life, the
assessment tools. results are only as good as the user.

May 2018
Vibration
Cruise vibrations
Peter Sharpe,
Vibration Engineering Manager
I first got involved with P&O Cruises in 2005 whilst working at a
previous consultancy. One of the two 20MW 80 tonne electric
propulsion motors on its round-the-world Aurora cruise ship
started to exhibit high vibration levels and I was mobilised
to investigate the problem. After several modifications to the
internal wiring, the vibration could not be reduced and the
cruise was cancelled and the ship went into refit to have two
new replacement propulsion electric motors (PEMs) installed.
After refit, I was involved in the acceptance sea trials of the new
PEMs to baseline the new vibration characteristics.
17
Four years later, an online condition monitoring (CM) system was
designed and installed by Gordon Strang and Farouk Azzaz to
continuously monitor the vibration, with alarm levels set. Since
the installation of the condition monitoring system, Gordon and
I have been mobilised several times to investigate the vibration
levels, which have exceeded the alarm levels.
Most recently, the staff electro-technical officer on board MV
Aurora contacted me via LinkedIn to ask if I was still involved
in vibration troubleshooting and mobilised me to investigate
the reason for the current high vibration levels on the Port PEM
compared to the Starboard PEM. Myself and Roger Kinns
from RKAcoustics mobilised with a 16 Channel Dewesoft data
acquisition system to Cartagena on the north coast of Colombia
in February to board MV Aurora and monitor the vibration whilst
sailing to Aruba. The Dewesoft system was set up to record
the vibration levels on both propulsion motors during a defined
testing program which covered the full operating speed of the
motors (30 to 140 RPM). Analysis of the recorded data from both
PEMs highlighted that the Starboard PEM had similar vibration
signatures to those from the acceptance sea trials in 2005,
but the Port PEM had discrete frequency components which
are now substantially higher at 2f0 and 4f0 where f0 is the AC
supply frequency.
Our recommendation was that the root cause was most likely
due to torque perturbations which could happen if one (or
more) of the stator bars had developed increased resistance
or even gone open-circuit. P&O followed up with a full internal
inspection of the Port PEM and located the problem. An open
circuit coil ring was found on the NDE along with two further
connections showing heat damage. The feedback was positive
– “your equipment and expertise got it right!” – and we were
praised for finding the issue and managing to resolve it swiftly.
It’s not all oil and gas for the vibration team!

May 2018
IN BRIEF
Noise
Sound project at
Aberdeen Harbour
Dragados UK has awarded Xodus a contract to monitor noise
levels as part of the Aberdeen Harbour Expansion Project.
The £350 million development will create additional facilities
and infrastructure in Aberdeen’s Nigg Bay, to the south of the
existing harbour. This marks the first contract between Xodus
and Dragados UK, one of the major infrastructure developers.
We have installed four remote noise monitors in the area
surrounding the development, which will monitor noise levels
continuously throughout the three-year construction phase of
the project. The devices will automatically send alerts to project
stakeholders if limits are breached. We will also provide support
and consultancy services to the project throughout the three-
year project span.
18
Risk
New ship collision risk
assessment
Following a period of research and development in 2017, our
geographical information services (GIS) and technical, safety
and risk (TSR) teams have developed a new combined service
to risk assess potential ship collisions.
This will consist of a vessel traffic survey (VTS) and collision
risk assessment (CRA), drawing upon our significant in-house
experience in the fields of risk assessment, vessel management
and geospatial data processing.
Market opportunities for this type of service range from
informing early stage design to establish structural tolerances
through to permitting and consenting, where such assessments
are a fundamental requirement for locating offshore assets
(e.g. drilling rigs) in UK waters under the Energy Act. Since
developing this offering, we have already delivered VTS for an
offshore wind project in the North Sea and an FPSO project off
West Africa and a full VTS/CRA scope for a multi-asset oil and
gas development in the Southern North Sea.
Whilst VTS/CRA is not a new offering to the industry, the
approach we have developed is robust, transparent, cost-
competitive, and highly integrated with our engineering and
permitting teams, differentiating us from the competition.