Wood Brings a Regional Focus Globally

Wood is using a global yet regional approach to complete offshore projects around the world.

Kent McAllister, Wood’s president for capital projects upstream & midstream, called Equinor’s Peregrino 2 project a good example of that kind of global yet regional approach.

“We’re bringing a Gulf of Mexico approach to a Norwegian project offshore Brazil,” leveraging expertise from around the world, he said. “We’re finishing off on all these great projects.”

On that list in addition to Peregrino 2 are BP’s Mad Dog 2 in the GoM, Husky’s White Rose offshore Canada and Noble Energy’s Leviathan, which is sailing later this summer to the Mediterranean.

“Since 2014, pretty much everybody took a holiday from drilling and development. So where are we going?” he said. “We’re working with our offices around the world to bring the global reach to the local clients and the market.”

Wood is also concentrating efforts on brownfield services, such as digital solutions to improve production and minimize downtime, he said.

Because Wood has expertise with platforms, subsea cabling, and wind power optimization, the company is starting to focus on offshore wind farm developments, McAllister said.

“We’re bringing all those parts of the company together for fullfield developments off the US coast,” he said.

Wood will execute the topsides and subsea aspects of offshore wind projects from the Houston office, he said.

One of the interesting projects at Wood right now is the result of the expansion of the shale play and the US’s move toward net gas exporter.

“We’re working on a platform-based LNG project that will take production from the Gulf Coast through liquefaction” and export, McAllister said.

Wood is supporting the client through the project’s permitting phase, he said. The project itself, which would be a first of its kind, uses proven technologies: a fixed platform in about 60 feet of water and standard liquefaction methods. The offshore packaging and LNG storage are new designs, McAllister said.

“The challenge is the tonnage of steel and the logistics of getting it built and installed,” he said, noting the unit would be fabricated overseas and brought to the US.