Technip favourite to win Vashishta subsea job
Technip is favourite to win ONGC's long-delayed tender to set up offshore subsea facilities at its Vashishta and S1 fields on the east coast.
A source tells this report that when bids were submitted on June 29 ONGC received offers from TL Offshore in partnership with Saipem Misr For Petroleum Services; McDermott International with L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering; Technip UK with Technip India; National Petroleum Construction Corporation with Allseas Group; and Subsea 7, bidding alone. Industry sources estimate this contract is worth at least $100m and all the bidders are expected to put up a good fight.
Yet Technip has an advantage, say analysts, because it won the $131m onshore part of the Vashishta and S1 development project in May 2014 to set up storage tanks, processing units and other facilities at the Odalarevu onshore receiving terminal by March 2017. ONGC wants the offshore project completed two months later, by May 2017.
A Technip source however disagrees. "There's no benefit to us in the offshore tender just because we're doing the onshore part," he says.
"If we'd won the offshore part first then we'd have benefited when bidding for the onshore project." McDermott with L&T is also said to be a strong contender given McDermott's extensive deepwater experience. Whoever wins will have their work cut out in water depths ranging from 500-700 metres.
