ODE Selected as Duty Holder at Babbage Platform

Offshore service provider ODE, part of DORIS Group, has won a duty holder 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 said Monday. 

The company has said it has previously acted as an operations and maintenance provider since the project phase and 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," ODE said.

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 minimizing the cost of ownership.  We intend to maintain this track record despite the current industry challenges and those of maintaining an aging asset.”

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.”