Page 16 - Danish Offshore Industry 2015

the production platform is already in place, so they had aware of the tendencies in the market, and as a conse- better hurry in Korea fnishing the rest of the platform. quence we have had to say goodbye to 100 employees in We shall use a lot of man-hours here, but even if the order to adjust,” tells Horn Nielsen, feeling that the same Hejre is delayed we shall do all we can to ensure that the considerations are relevant to many other managing project is going ahead,” explains Flemming Horn Nielsen directors. and elaborates a bit on the Hejre. “In 2016 we shall go “We have to remember that previously this industry for the physical installations as all is to be hooked-up lead a life with declining oil prices like now – and man- for production to start the following year. The potential aged quite well, so many oil companies are probably is still unchanged, but we shall be much wiser now, as asking themselves how they could make money in those we are drilling all the wells,” states Horn Nielsen, who days. An extra look is taken at the costs of external in spite of the perspectives of the three felds senses the contractors, but internal costs are just as important to same hesitant trend in activities as the rest of the off- consider. I have no doubt that in many companies a re- shore industry. consolidation is taking place to see how proft can be in- creased without jeopardizing safety and quality. Earlier, GENERAL RE-CONSOLIDATING history has shown similar ups and downs, and probably The entire branch seems to pay utmost attention to the the only difference now is that this time the price of oil time when it pays to step up activities in the North Sea, for a very long time had stabilized at a high level, but I and the time when it is wiser to slow down a bit and let am sure that more activities will materialize.” others go ahead. “We have submitted some applications for the 7th “In DONG E&P we are not getting involved in any- Concession Round, so it will be interesting to see how thing that is not competitive with the other activities it all ends up. It will take up a good deal of our time, so of our concern. And obviously, the drop in the price of combined with the activities at the Siri, Solsort and Hejre oil means taking care of each step ahead. However, in we shall be rather active in the Danish sector. DONG general our desire to invest has not changed, but natu- Energy is clearly committed to exploiting the Danish rally we are looking closely at investments in Denmark reserves,” concludes Flemming Horn Nielsen looking compared to investments elsewhere. We are absolutely forward to an interesting year. ■ DONG is still investing in projects in the Danish North Sea. 16 / COMPETITIVE IN THE NORTH SEA