Ambitious ESNAAD on course for continued expansion

ESNAAD has embarked on an ambitious expansion plan that will see its fleet grow in size and sophistication. The company, which is part of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company in the Middle East, operates 44 owned or chartered vessels, including PSVs, AHTS’s, tugs, crewboats, fast supply boats, safety standby vessels and maintenance vessels

ESNAAD has a diversified client base in the United Arab Emirates and the countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC). The company is an established provider of support vessel services to national oil companies and independent oil companies operating in the Arabian Gulf but is looking to expand into other operating areas.

ESNAAD’s general manager Darwish Al Qubaisi spoke to OSJ at the OTC exhibition and conference in Houston earlier this year, when he said the company regularly receives enquiries from operators around the world. Mr Al Qubaisi said that although ESNAAD is primarily focussed on the market in the Gulf, it sees plenty of opportunities for work elsewhere as its fleet grows in size and the sophistication of the vessels it operates increases.

The company has a marine staff of around 680 offshore employees and also maintains its own facilities that allow it to repair and maintain its vessels throughout their life cycles.

Mr Al Qubaisi said 2011 will be a significant year for the company because new vessels will join its growing fleet of owned and chartered vessels. The company recently announced that it had taken delivery of three vessels of Rolls-Royce UT733 design. The former Labroy shipyard in Singapore built the three advanced offshore support vessels for ESNAAD, each of which has an offshore crane. In 2006 ESNAAD became the first Middle East-based owner to order a UT-Design vessel from Rolls-Royce when it placed a contract for the construction of a pair of UT780 anchor-handling tugs, vessels which were delivered in 2008 with some vessel-specific design modifications, primarily to facilitate operation in high ambient and water temperatures.

Mr Al Qubaisi said ESNAAD only builds vessels against contracts. The latest three – ESNAAD 950, ESNAAD 951 and ESNAAD 952 – are part of an ambitious long-term strategy to increase the capabilities of the fleet with which the company serves the oil and gas sector in Abu Dhabi.

“These new ships are state of the art and can undertake a wide range of work,” said Mr Al Qubaisi, who noted that the vessels have been chartered to Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company.

“More new ships will be in service soon,” said Mr Al Qubaisi. He added that before taking delivery of the UT733s at the end of 2009, the company had earlier taken delivery of a fast supply vessel built in Singapore by Pelican shipyard. This was the second of a pair of such vessels. It can reach 18 knots and carry a range of cargoes from mud to brine and bulk cargo.

In due course, said Mr Al Qubaisi, ESNAAD could well become involved in operating other vessel types, such as dive support vessels. The company expects to be closely involved in other major projects in the region, he said, such as the massive project that sister company Zakum Development Company (ZADCO) has embarked on to build four artificial, reclaimed islands from which to develop the Upper Zakum field offshore Abu Dhabi rather than using conventional offshore platforms. The project is part of ZADCO’s 750 project, which aims to boost the production capacity of Upper Zakum to 750,000 bbl per day by 2015.

In late 2009 Abu Dhabi’s National Marine Dredging Company won a US$639 million contract from Abu Dhabi National Oil Company to build the artificial islands in the Zakum field.

ZADCO is responsible for developing the Zakum field, which is said to be the second largest in the Arabian Gulf and the fourth largest oil field in the world.

Given its expansion plans and the size of some of the fields in the region, recruiting and training seagoing personnel is obviously a key issue for ESNAAD, which recently signed an agreement with the Jordan Academy for Maritime Studies (JAMS) to provide training courses for ESNAAD’s marine officers.

The agreement was signed by Mr Al Qubaisi and Dr Engineer Mustafa Massad, director of JAMS, to enable the two organisations to co-operate to exchange ideas and experience.

Mr Al Qubaisi explained that ESNAAD aims to increase the number of seamen it recruits from the Emirates and help develop the skills its personnel will require. “Currently 39 per cent of ESNAAD’s workforce is from the region and we are on target to achieve our goal of 75 per cent of core positions to be filled by UAE nationals by 2014.” OSJ