News

SUBSEA 7 INC. (OSE Symbol: SUB) announced today that it has been awarded a contract valued at approximately US $ 200 million by Esso Angola Ltd. for work associated with the Kizomba C Saxi-Batuque project in Block 15 offshore Angola.

The Saxi-Batuque project will be developed using a conversion FPSO host with tie back of two drill centres for Batuque and two drill centres for Saxi. Subsea 7 will perform the design, pipe fabrication and installation of 16 steel flowlines and their accompanying flowline terminations. In total, there will be 50km of flowlines ranging between 6” and 10” in diameter.

Installation of the flowlines is due to commence in the forth quarter of 2007 in water depths ranging from 650 to 810 metres. Engineering and project support will be undertaken from Subsea 7’s recently established office in London, and all in country activities will be assigned to Sevenseas Angola, Subsea 7’s entity in Angola. The project requires Subsea 7 to further develop the fabrication activities at its Luanda base at Sonils.

Jan Willem van der Graaf, Subsea 7’s vice president West Africa comments, “Following on from our safe and successful completion of the Lobito Tomboco rigid pipelay project, we are very pleased to be continuing installation operations in Angola on Kizomba C. We are looking forward to embarking on our plans to employ in excess of 200 Angolan nationals during the course of this project involving substantial investment in training and development schemes. The success of this venture will be based on deepening our cooperation with our Angolan partners and subcontractors”.

Source: Subsea 7

STRIKE ACTION by more than 800 diving personnel employed in the North Sea oil and gas industries came a step closer today as RMT announced the massive rejection of a pay offer that failed to address two decades of pay erosion.

Announcing that the offer had been rejected by an enormous 640 votes to 2, the union today gave notice that only a dramatically improved pay offer would avert strike action by divers and diving support staff from November 1.

North Sea divers have seen their earnings slip by nearly 20 per cent behind UK average earnings since 1984. RMT's claim is for a 50 per cent increase, and the offer rejected is of just 15 per cent over three years. RMT membership has increased dramatically since the ballot was announced.

"The massive turnout and the all-but unanimous vote show exactly how angry our members are at an offer that simply fails even to dent the chronic pay slippage they have had to endure for more than 20 years," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"We hope that the employers will take note of this tremendous ballot result and table an offer that redresses the real-terms pay cuts and sub-inflation deals our members have been expected to swallow for so long.

"No-one can argue that the industry cannot afford to pay decent rates to people who do some of the most difficult and dangerous work in a particularly difficult and dangerous industry," Bob Crow said.

"Our members have spoken with a single voice and now it is the turn of the employers to respond with a serious offer," said RMT national secretary Steve Todd.

"Our members are utterly united in their determination to win a decent pay deal and if it comes to a fight we are ready, and our sister unions in Europe and beyond have assured us that they will give any assitance we may need.

"We are still ready to talk, but it is now crystal clear that we need to have something more serious to talk about," Steve Todd said.

Source: RMT

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