Enegi Oil signs up Kongsberg and Braemar for its Marginal Fields Initiative

By Amy McLellan

AIM-quoted Enegi Oil, which is focused on developing marginal oilfields using unmanned buoy technology, has signed collaboration agreements with Olso-listed Kongsberg Maritime and Braemar ACM Shipbroking. These are the first members of the company’s planned consortium to deliver its marginal field initiative, with Kongsberg providing its remote control and monitoring technology for the unmanned floating units and Braemar ACM helping to source financing and assist asset and shipyard negotiations.

They will also help source projects that will be suitable candidates for the marginal field initiative – and this hunt is not restricted to Enegi’s existing portfolio of exploration, development and production interests in Newfoundland, the North Sea and Jordan, with Enegi’s CEO Alan Minty saying the initiative is a “truly global opportunity”.

Manchester-based Enegi, through its joint venture ABT Oil & Gas, has been developing and refining its Marginal Field Initiative for a number of years. It sees real opex and capex savings in using normally unattended installations to ensure previously uneconomic marginal fields get developed and provide returns to operators and investors.

Enegi is in ongoing discussions with other complementary major industry players to join the consortium to provide further expertise, particularly in the areas of engineering design, project management, fabrication yard, topsides, duty holdership and funding. The company says the completion of these ongoing discussions is expected to lead to a “dramatic upturn” in activity.

According to the AIM micro-cap, the principle of collaboration is that each partner demonstrates their belief and commitment to the Marginal Field Initiative through investment which is tailored to each party’s contribution. Minty said the aim was to bring together a consortium of “like-minded industry players with the expertise to deliver the Marginal Field Initiative”.

“We expect these companies, as well as the addition of further industry players in the near future, to significantly increase the venture’s activity,” said Minty. “We look forward to working with our new partners, gaining further projects and taking the Marginal Field Initiative to the next stage of its development.”

James Kidwell, CEO Braemar Shipping Services, said the marginal field initiative is “very timely” give the current industry focus on costs and how to continue to ensure effective economic future production. “We believe that this has the potential to be a considerable initiative,” he said.
Dean Jennings, sales manager of offshore production units at Kongsberg Maritime, said the effect that normally unattended operations could have on operating expense is “enormous”.

With the slump in the oil price, there’s now a much bigger pool of fields that can be classed as marginal, cost reductions are a priority for all in the industry and contractors are far more inclined to enter collaborative ventures in order to find work. It could be that