ODE achieves duty holder milestone on Babbage installation

18th May, 2020

The Babbage Installation

ODE Asset Management Ltd (ODE) is delighted to confirm that it has secured a contract from NEO Energy (NEO) for the Babbage Field in the Southern North Sea.

This is a significant ODE milestone as the first installation and pipeline operator (duty holder) appointment in the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).

ODE is no stranger to the Babbage asset. The company has acted as operations and maintenance provider since the project phase and successfully transitioned the platform from normally manned to not normally manned status in recent years.

ODE’s continued involvement in Babbage is important business continuity for NEO Energy, in particular securing existing jobs managing the offshore asset.

Sandy Reid, managing director of ODE Asset Management, commented: “This is the first of two outsourced duty holder contracts we’re bringing across the line in 2020 and is a tremendous achievement for our Great Yarmouth and Aberdeen teams.  We’re delighted to have the trust of NEO as their operations partner for Babbage, and hope to further build our relationship by helping them achieve their ambitious growth plans.  We’ve got an excellent track record of keeping the facility performing above platform design efficiency levels whilst also safely minimising the cost of ownership.  We intend to maintain this track record despite the current industry challenges and those of maintaining an aging asset.”

He added: “This contract recognises ODE’s experience and expertise in operations support and builds on our long history of supporting producing assets.  It also demonstrates that ODE’s offering and approach, focused on efficiency and bespoke integration with clients, challenges the market norm. As the North Sea matures, the ODE approach addresses the industry’s cost related challenges.”

Lynne MacPherson, NEO’s asset manager, commented: “The Babbage operatorship is an important milestone for NEO as we develop the company in the UKCS.  We continue to see significant value in the region with a strategy to grow, both organically and through acquisition, to achieve production of 80,000-100,000 boepd. In these challenging times, we’ve worked closely with our operations partner ODE to safely and effectively transition operatorship of the Babbage asset. We look forward to a successful long-term partnership managing the facilities.”