Ramboll taking Global Steps 

By setting up a new and independent 500-staff division Denmark’s largest consulting engineering company within the oil and gas industry has become even more visible internationally. Its target is continuous growth.

Being a small oil nation Denmark has for a long time been focusing on optimal exploitation of marginal oil fields, and the know-how accumulated by Danish engineers within this discipline may turn out to be an important export commodity.

Ramboll Oil & Gas comprising a staff of some 500 persons and headquartered at Esbjerg has doubled the share of its turn-over from outside Denmark in three years, now accounting for half of its turn-over, and this figure is expected to increase.

“Till now the international oil companies have concentrated on the mammoth-fields, but oil prices reaching 50-60 US$ pr. barrel provide new opportunities and make even small oil fields commercial. This is where we come into the picture offering solutions calling for cost-effective platforms,” explains Director, Market & Business Development, Kai B. Olsen, Ramboll Oil & Gas.

Ramboll Oil & Gas has a staff of more than 120 employees placed in Norway, and in the future the company will aim for increasing its share of jobs in the Norwegian sector. The Norwegians have demonstrated increased interest in cost-effective solutions which is one of the specialities of the Danish engineers.

“We can prove that a platform is able to remain at a field as long as there is oil, and that it is possible to up-date it with new technology in order to produce more oil. When speaking of production and modification of platforms we are able to scan and feed 3-D pictures into a computer and design changes to the existing platform,” states Managing Director Dan Madsen, heading Ramboll Oil & Gas.

 
An advanced FPSO-vessel (Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading)
similar to the one Ramboll Oil & Gas is doing the detailed topsides design
on for APL/Samsung.

“It requires a certain size to be taken seriously internationally. The trend is for the jobs to be larger and more complex requiring broader shoulders,” explains Kai B. Olsen.

As an example he mentions that the design of an FPSO produced in Korea for a Norwegian client will amount to at least 300,000 man/hours. Another example of a demanding international job is the Nord Stream Project, where Ramboll Oil & Gas is to spend at least 40,000 man/hours negotiating with authorities and reporting on the environmental impact of the 1,200 km gas pipeline from Vyborg in Russia to Greifswald in Germany.

Acquisition in the North Sea
At present the international expansion of Ramboll Oil & Gas primarily takes place in the North Sea and the Arabian Gulf. The next three years it will be supported by setting up new offices in Abu Dhabi, Aberdeen and Banglore, the Indian office mainly handling control of outsourced construction jobs.

In addition to this the new offshore company as a part of its growth strategy will consider various acquisitions in order to consolidate, as its goal is to establish engineering companies providing oil and gas expertise in Norway and the UK. Within the next three years Ramboll Oil & Gas expects to buy five to eight companies with a total staff of some 200 persons.

Home market active
International ambitions will not, however, make Ramboll Oil & Gas neglect its home market. The dominating operators in the Danish sector of the North Sea, Maersk Oil & Gas, DONG Energy and Hess Denmark, are expected to maintain a high level of activity, and the 14 new concessions from the Sixth Concession Round show some interesting names. 

“Naturally, we hope for new finds, and furthermore we expect production to be optimized as the existing fields yield less and less. That requires more engineering than any normal operation. It will be attractive for the oil companies for us to take part in the extension of the operational life of the platforms and increase the recoverable reserves,” states Kai B. Olsen. At present it is possible to produce 25 per cent of the oil in the Danish sector of the North Sea. If that figure could be increased by only a few percents it means an additional profit amounting to billions of DKK to the benefit of industry and the national economy.

“I do not trust the pessimists declaring that the rush for Danish oil and gas has culminated,” declares Dan Madsen in a firm voice.

He has taken part in the development of the oil and gas industry from its very beginning in the first part of the 1980’s. When Ramboll’s main client, Maersk Oil & Gas in 1991 decided to move its Engineering Department from Copenhagen to Esbjerg, Ramboll took the strategic decision to make Esbjerg its headquarter for the oil and gas activities. Since then the office in Esbjerg has grown dramatically to some 200 employees.

Qatar and Norway
In 1995 Kai B. Olsen was among the pioneers when Ramboll set up an office in Qatar just managing to keep both ends meeting in 1997-98, when the oil prices dropped to 10 US$ and the industry almost withered away. Since 2000 the Qatar-office has seen a fine progression now comprising a staff of some 130 persons.

Getting into Norway was problematic, too. The first office in Stavanger was closed, and Ramboll did not establish a proper foothold until 2003 when buying 40% of the shares of Future Engineering in Sandefjord and now taken over the entire company. At the take-over the company had 70 employees, but now Ramboll Oil & Gas Norway has a staff of more than 120 persons.

“Norway is the place where most of us got our first working experience in the offshore industry in the 1970’s as we worked there, until we joined Ramboll. Since then we have had a lot of our staff handling jobs for Norwegian companies,” states Kai B. Olsen, who is the chairman of the organisation Danish Offshore Industry.

By now Ramboll Oil & Gas is stronger and more prepared to compete with other international consulting companies.

“Our new structure has given us more freedom to expand independently and on our own conditions. Our clients are global, so we have to be global, too,” explains Dan Madsen.

Facts about Ramboll Oil & Gas:
Denmark’s leading consultancy company within oil and gas. Headquarters are in Esbjerg with a staff of 200 people and 60 in Copenhagen serving domestic and international customers. The Copenhagen office specializes in pipeline engineering and onshore treatment plants. Abroad the company has a staff of 120 employees at offices in Stavanger and Sandefjord in Norway and 130 in Doha, Qatar. The staff is constantly growing, so the number of employees is most likely higher at the moment than stated above.

Ramboll Oil & Gas expects to increase its turn-over from 400 million DKK to 600 million DKK within 3 years.