In an already tight engineering market, new subsea specialist firm Antares Offshore is making a go of it by banking on years of experience from its top management team and offering companies an alternative to the traditional man hour focused way of doing business. Marshall DeLuca hears how this new player plans to infiltrate the market.

But Bob Carter, a subsea hardware specialist with a résumé dating back 30 years with stops at shops such as Cameron and Mentor Subsea, disagrees. Carter says companies are looking for a new level of subsea engineering service, one that is solution-driven rather than just focused on the traditional engineering company staple of supplying man-hours.

As such, late last year Carter and several other seasoned subsea sector veterans hung out their own shingle to try and parlay what he tabulates is more than a collective 100 years of direct applicable experience into a new form of subsea engineering service for the industry. The new firm, headed by Carter, is called Antares Offshore and named for the brightest star in the constellation Scorpio, which, the company adds, coincidentally resembles an arduous subsea routing arrangement.

Antares' aim is to provide niche engineering and project management services. What makes this 'niche', Carter says, is delivering these services from not only the reservoir interface, but to the end of the export system.

'Our suite of services goes from commercialization through offshore support and includes both the subsea equipment and pipelines and risers,' he says. 'It's a continuum. There is seamless integration so we do not have to hand it off.'

Part of this continuum he promises is being able to provide solutions that are designed from an installation perspective. In addition to the company's breadth of subsea engineering knowledge, several members of the management team also have direct experience in the marine contracting and installation side of the business - one even served as a barge superintendent.

'If you can't put it in the water, you can't use it,' Carter says. 'It is closing the loop. We are not delivering a report or study that leaves the client somewhere in between having an end product and getting the equipment offshore and in the water. Our company is composed of persons who have substantial experience either in the hardware side of the business or in the contracting marine construction side. So when they say something about getting it in the water and getting it right the first time we understand what that is, we have been there and we understand it.'

And in supplying this service Antares offers an unbiased view with regard to contracting. While it works with several contractors, Carter's team keeps a firm distance from affiliating with any single installation contractor or equipment manufacturer, the point being to provide absolute objectivity to the customer.

Even though the company is small, Carter says the ultimate goal is growth, but in a manner that maintains quality. He says oftentimes as companies grow, the customer tends to suffer as the top personnel only work on the largest projects and smaller jobs are assigned to less-experienced staff.

'We need to maintain our quality and be sized properly to deliver the A-teams,' he says. 'We don't want to get so big that all the client gets is the C-team that are coming up through the ranks.'

To date Antares has nabbed work on two subsea projects. The company's first job was for Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) and involved a subsea tieback in 400ft of water on the Donghae-1 gas development in Korea's East Sea.

The development, which came online in April, consists of an initial three subsea satellite wells producing through ABBsupplied 5ksi horizontal trees and controlled using an electro-hydraulic multiplexed control system to a conventional platform supplied by Hyundai Heavy Industries under an EPCI contract. This platform is capable of processing up to 75mmcf/d of gas that is then exported 60km through a 14in line to a dedicated onshore terminal through which it feeds the Korean gas grid.

Antares' role in the job was to provide subsea consultancy services to KNOC for the project including the hydrotest, dewatering and drying of the infield flowlines, commission the subsea wells, SCM replacement and advice on subsea operations and maintenance issues. Although this project was not technically 'cutting edge', it was quite high profile as it represented not only Korea's first subsea tieback, but also the country's first offshore project.

But while Donghae was mostly a consultancy service, Antares' more recently awarded contract, Carter says, represents a true challenge for the firm's delivery model. This project involves engineering, procurement and installation management for a subsea tieback in the Gulf of Guayaquil offshore Ecuador for Noble Energy's integrated gas-to-power project that currently provides between 10% and 15% of the country's electricity. And while like Donghae this job is fairly straightforward technically, it is again rather high profile in that it marks Ecuador's first subsea development.

The plan is to tie three subsea wells back between 1.5km and 3.5km through individual flowlines with direct hydraulic control umbilicals to an existing platform in 150ft of water on the Amistad gas field. This platform is in turn linked through a 24km pipeline to a power generation plant onshore.

To-date the trees have been prepurchased by Noble and Antares anticipates bidding for an installation contractor in the near term and completing the job by early next year.

As an interesting caveat to the project, Antares is also implementing a new riser hang-off system at the platform to enhance the project economics.

The company is planning to install the risers bundled together in two sections on the platform in order to reduce the number of clamps and support requirements on the jacket as well as the amount of diver involvement.

'Ecuador is the first job that challenges the delivery model,' Carter says. 'The delivery model is robust, flexible, fit-forpurpose and designed for installation. While not as technically challenging as other subsea projects might be, it is definitely a very important job and it is a full scope project,' he adds.

Beyond Korea and Ecuador, Antares has several other projects in the works. The company is performing studies for several operators on Gulf of Mexico developments in water depths ranging from 5700ft to 9000ft as well as another job that Carter is not at liberty to discuss - other than describing it as 'trés cool'. And while these projects may not be on the scale of the large, full-scope jobs some of the larger firms have won, Antares feels they are enough to grow the company in an admittedly crowded market.

'It is a tough market and we are working to establish our differentiation with practical solutions,' he says. 'If you are not very big, it doesn't take big jobs to provide good sustenance for you.

'We want to be big and our plan is to grow the company. To do that we will rely on a satisfied clientele to keep business flowing. Our job is to provide robust, flexible, fit-for-purpose solutions designed for installation. The others aren't doing it. We have been there and we know we can do it. We have the relevant hands-on experience and the full knowledge of what is required,' he adds. OE