Page 34 - OGA-Sept-2015
P. 34
DIVING & MARINE SUPPORT
OIL & GAS AUSTRALIA
Total AMS plans expansion
BY ANDREW HOBBS
FREMANTLE-based Total AMS is considering
an expansion to new challenges interstate
and overseas, making the most of what it
says is its key asset – diversity.
Founded in 1999 as a specialist mooring The FT3, ready for operations in the state’s north. Image courtesy Total AMS.
installation and maintenance contractor,
today the company provides inshore Mr Bartlett said the group had decided to to do work where it was trying to get in and
construction, dredging, refit and fabrication build a base in the state’s North West in a around the caissons at Gorgon, so the barge
services, as well as mooring, rope and lines bid to save the costs of bringing a vessel back needed to be able to turn and also bend in a
and vessel hire. to Fremantle for repair. couple of places,” Mr Bartlett said.
Speaking with Oil & Gas Australia, Total “So it saves us costs but it also saves “So we designed it in three pieces –
AMS chief financial officer Lee Bartlett said our clients costs, because if they are only it’s a three piece boom. So as a normal
the company’s separate divisions operated as mobilising from Onslow we can pass that digger would just have the one piece with
their own independent businesses. saving on,” he said. the digger on it, this one has an extra
connection on it to give it that extra
“So if one division might have a quieter Construction began on the facility four f lexibility.”
month, you might have the other divisions years ago, Mr Bartlett said, and interest
which are going full throttle – so we are a grew in the project along the way, not least The dredger today measures 35 metres
one stop shop,” he said. because of its proximity to the Gorgon and with a gross tonnage of 467 tonnes, its
Wheatstone projects. size making it unique among comparable
“We have been solely WA based, but we vessels.
are actually looking a little bit further afield “We have got the base there and it is
now, given that the market is coming back not only the marine side – we get business “It was purposely built to go and work
a little bit and we realise that we need to now as civil companies coming in and they on the Gorgon project but since then we
broaden our horizons,” he said. might have welding requirements on their have been able to go and work on other
bulldozers, for example,” he said. jobs in Port Hedland, down at the Quay in
The company was looking at potential Henderson and a couple of places down in
projects in the Northern Territory and South “So we have got coded welders who are Bunbury as well,” Mr Bartlett said.
Australia as well as assessing its options always based up in Onslow, so we will bring
for working in Indonesia, Mr Bartlett said, it to the yard, weld it and take it away again “It was used for rock placement, but at the
aiming to get there within the next 12 – we are providing that land-based service same time you just take the claw and put a
months. as well.” bucket on it and it becomes a digger. So it
has worked really, really well.”
“The beauty of our assets is that they are But the company’s innovative approaches
mobile. We are not limited by geography” to the challenges it confronts had also While Total AMS has a strong asset base,
he said. provided a point of difference for the group, Mr Bartlett said the group’s workplace
as the situation was with the FT3 dredger. culture and the skills of its staff were also a
It was the diversity of the services that major key to the group’s success.
the company can offer which would help it Developed by Total AMS’s WA Dredging
get off the ground in these new places, he arm, the FT3 was a standard dumb barge “It comes back to if a client calls us up
added. which the group turned into a three piece with an immediate problem, we need a team
excavator in the space of 16 weeks at to be able to go at the drop of a hat – and
“I have seen it that many times when a Fremantle and Henderson – the only place our guys are happy to do that, so everyone is
certain area has been quiet we can move the in the Perth metro area big enough to allow key to the business,” he said.
staff onto another area or division, but we the barge to be lifted when completed.
have still got those skills and that capability “Diversity for us is the key message – it is
in house so that when things do pick up we The company put spud holes through the the one thing that has really held us in good
are back there again.” barge to give it legs, as well as twin thrusters stead.” l
enabling it to manoeuvre.
This helped the company see a 15 per cent
growth in terms of its turnover last year, Mr “But the unique part of it was that it was
Bartlett said.
“In that we had some Wheatstone
work but for a lot of it was based in Port
Hedland and it was just doing that ad hoc
maintenance.”
Much of this work was done through the
group’s Onslow Shorebase at Beadon Creek
– which offers 15,000 square metres of lay
down area with a heavy load out wharf as
well as a 180 tonne crawler crane.
The decision to base the facility in Onslow
was made after the company rejected an
option at Darwin, which had become
too heavily populated for the group, and
Exmouth, where the Ningaloo Reef posed
difficult environmental requirements.
32 ENERGY PUBLICATIONS CELEBRATING 34 YEARS OF PUBLISHING IN AUSTRALIA
OIL & GAS AUSTRALIA
Total AMS plans expansion
BY ANDREW HOBBS
FREMANTLE-based Total AMS is considering
an expansion to new challenges interstate
and overseas, making the most of what it
says is its key asset – diversity.
Founded in 1999 as a specialist mooring The FT3, ready for operations in the state’s north. Image courtesy Total AMS.
installation and maintenance contractor,
today the company provides inshore Mr Bartlett said the group had decided to to do work where it was trying to get in and
construction, dredging, refit and fabrication build a base in the state’s North West in a around the caissons at Gorgon, so the barge
services, as well as mooring, rope and lines bid to save the costs of bringing a vessel back needed to be able to turn and also bend in a
and vessel hire. to Fremantle for repair. couple of places,” Mr Bartlett said.
Speaking with Oil & Gas Australia, Total “So it saves us costs but it also saves “So we designed it in three pieces –
AMS chief financial officer Lee Bartlett said our clients costs, because if they are only it’s a three piece boom. So as a normal
the company’s separate divisions operated as mobilising from Onslow we can pass that digger would just have the one piece with
their own independent businesses. saving on,” he said. the digger on it, this one has an extra
connection on it to give it that extra
“So if one division might have a quieter Construction began on the facility four f lexibility.”
month, you might have the other divisions years ago, Mr Bartlett said, and interest
which are going full throttle – so we are a grew in the project along the way, not least The dredger today measures 35 metres
one stop shop,” he said. because of its proximity to the Gorgon and with a gross tonnage of 467 tonnes, its
Wheatstone projects. size making it unique among comparable
“We have been solely WA based, but we vessels.
are actually looking a little bit further afield “We have got the base there and it is
now, given that the market is coming back not only the marine side – we get business “It was purposely built to go and work
a little bit and we realise that we need to now as civil companies coming in and they on the Gorgon project but since then we
broaden our horizons,” he said. might have welding requirements on their have been able to go and work on other
bulldozers, for example,” he said. jobs in Port Hedland, down at the Quay in
The company was looking at potential Henderson and a couple of places down in
projects in the Northern Territory and South “So we have got coded welders who are Bunbury as well,” Mr Bartlett said.
Australia as well as assessing its options always based up in Onslow, so we will bring
for working in Indonesia, Mr Bartlett said, it to the yard, weld it and take it away again “It was used for rock placement, but at the
aiming to get there within the next 12 – we are providing that land-based service same time you just take the claw and put a
months. as well.” bucket on it and it becomes a digger. So it
has worked really, really well.”
“The beauty of our assets is that they are But the company’s innovative approaches
mobile. We are not limited by geography” to the challenges it confronts had also While Total AMS has a strong asset base,
he said. provided a point of difference for the group, Mr Bartlett said the group’s workplace
as the situation was with the FT3 dredger. culture and the skills of its staff were also a
It was the diversity of the services that major key to the group’s success.
the company can offer which would help it Developed by Total AMS’s WA Dredging
get off the ground in these new places, he arm, the FT3 was a standard dumb barge “It comes back to if a client calls us up
added. which the group turned into a three piece with an immediate problem, we need a team
excavator in the space of 16 weeks at to be able to go at the drop of a hat – and
“I have seen it that many times when a Fremantle and Henderson – the only place our guys are happy to do that, so everyone is
certain area has been quiet we can move the in the Perth metro area big enough to allow key to the business,” he said.
staff onto another area or division, but we the barge to be lifted when completed.
have still got those skills and that capability “Diversity for us is the key message – it is
in house so that when things do pick up we The company put spud holes through the the one thing that has really held us in good
are back there again.” barge to give it legs, as well as twin thrusters stead.” l
enabling it to manoeuvre.
This helped the company see a 15 per cent
growth in terms of its turnover last year, Mr “But the unique part of it was that it was
Bartlett said.
“In that we had some Wheatstone
work but for a lot of it was based in Port
Hedland and it was just doing that ad hoc
maintenance.”
Much of this work was done through the
group’s Onslow Shorebase at Beadon Creek
– which offers 15,000 square metres of lay
down area with a heavy load out wharf as
well as a 180 tonne crawler crane.
The decision to base the facility in Onslow
was made after the company rejected an
option at Darwin, which had become
too heavily populated for the group, and
Exmouth, where the Ningaloo Reef posed
difficult environmental requirements.
32 ENERGY PUBLICATIONS CELEBRATING 34 YEARS OF PUBLISHING IN AUSTRALIA
