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Contract for Five-Year Subsea Infrastructure Fabrication Work to Take Place at Harland & Wolff (Arnish) Scotland

7th March 2024
The shipyard group, Harland & Wolff has signed a contract for a five year subsea fabrication work at one of its yards, Arnish located on the Isle of Lewis (Outer Hebrides) off west Scotland. Above apprentices seen at the facility in recent years.
The shipyard group, Harland & Wolff has signed a contract for a five year subsea fabrication work at one of its yards, Arnish located on the Isle of Lewis (Outer Hebrides) off west Scotland. Above apprentices seen at the facility in recent years. Credit: HarlandWolffplc/facebook

Shipyard group, Harland & Wolff has signed a five-year Master Services Agreement for the fabrication of large structures at one of their two Scotland based yard sites.

The contract is with a global oil services company supplying subsea infrastructure across the globe and the work is to take place at Harland & Wolff (Arnish) where the yard is located on the Isle of Lewis off the west coast. 

H&W has now received its first purchase order under that agreement to fabricate six subsea structures with a contract value of around £3 million. These highly specialised structures are used in oil and gas platforms and the surrounding infrastructure. Each is capable of withstanding pressures of 430 bar (6,235 psi).

The structures will be built over the next 18 months at the company's Arnish site in a staged delivery programme with an expected completion date in 2025.

Welcoming the contract, John Wood, CEO of Harland & Wolff Group Holdings, said: "I am delighted that Arnish is recognised as a centre of excellence to deliver critical subsea infrastructure.

“This contract marks a significant step for Harland & Wolff, and builds on the highly technical work the yard has already undertaken on suction anchors, piles and the work it is currently performing for the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) platform vessel the SeaRose FPSO."  

“These specialised subsea structures are a new product area for us and we expect that successful delivery of this contract will open up significant opportunities for additional contracts in subsea infrastructure in the future.”

The work on the SeaRose FPSO, Afloat adds is taking place at Harland & Wolff (Belfast), the group's largest shipyard facility. 

Published in Shipyards
Jehan Ashmore

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Jehan Ashmore

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Jehan Ashmore is a marine correspondent, researcher and photographer, specialising in Irish ports, shipping and the ferry sector serving the UK and directly to mainland Europe. Jehan also occasionally writes a column, 'Maritime' Dalkey for the (Dalkey Community Council Newsletter) in addition to contributing to UK marine periodicals. 

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Shipyards

Afloat will be focusing on news and developments of shipyards with newbuilds taking shape on either slipways and building halls.

The common practice of shipbuilding using modular construction, requires several yards make specific block sections that are towed to a single designated yard and joined together to complete the ship before been launched or floated out.

In addition, outfitting quays is where internal work on electrical and passenger facilities is installed (or upgraded if the ship is already in service). This work may involve newbuilds towed to another specialist yard, before the newbuild is completed as a new ship or of the same class, designed from the shipyard 'in-house' or from a naval architect consultancy. Shipyards also carry out repair and maintenance, overhaul, refit, survey, and conversion, for example, the addition or removal of cabins within a superstructure. All this requires ships to enter graving /dry-docks or floating drydocks, to enable access to the entire vessel out of the water.

Asides from shipbuilding, marine engineering projects such as offshore installations take place and others have diversified in the construction of offshore renewable projects, from wind-turbines and related tower structures. When ships are decommissioned and need to be disposed of, some yards have recycling facilities to segregate materials, though other vessels are run ashore, i.e. 'beached' and broken up there on site. The scrapped metal can be sold and made into other items.