August 27 - Fremantle headquartered Mermaid Marine Australia (MMA) Limited has been awarded a vessel contract by Subsea 7 to provide tug and barge support services on the Chevron-operated Gorgon Project.
Using owned and chartered vessels, MMA will provide a fleet of nine tug and barge sets to support subsea installation works, as well as an offshore positioning tug.
MMA will act a lead contractor and will subcontract to other operators in order to provide the overall vessel capacity required on the project.
All vessels involved will deliver equipment to the Gorgon and Jansz-Io fields offshore Barrow Island and will operate under all relevant Australian manning requirements.
The contract is valued in excess of AUD100 million (USD89.54 million); works will commence in October 2013.
The Gorgon Project is one of the world's largest liquid natural gas projects and the largest single resource development in Australia. The project is a joint venture between the Australian subsidiaries of Chevron (47.3 percent), ExxonMobil (25 percent), Shell (25 percent), Osaka Gas (1.25 percent), Tokyo Gas (1 percent) and Chubu Electric Power (0.417 percent). It includes a three-train LNG facility on Barrow Island and when complete it will produce 15.6 million tonnes of LNG per year. The Gorgon Project also includes a domestic natural gas plant and a carbon sequestration plant.
