Gate Grabs Whale Commissioning Deal

Gate Energy has announced that it has been selected by Shell Offshore Inc. (Shell) as the provider for facility commissioning for the Whale development.

The work scope under the deal includes commissioning planning, onshore commissioning execution and offshore commissioning/ready for startup services, Gate Energy outlined. The deal follows a separate award from Shell, which saw the company choose Gate Energy as the provider for facility commissioning for the Vito development.

Mark Myhre, the president of commissioning at Gate Energy, said, “the Whale award exemplifies Gate’s commissioning as industry leading and solidifies our expertise and commitment to our clients”.

“We are confident that Gate’s efforts on the Vito project to date and our ability to gain efficiencies through the application of lessons learned will be implemented on Whale to deliver best-in-class execution support to Shell,” he added.

“This will be Gate’s second opportunity to execute commissioning of the 'design one, build two' project model. Whale will add to our already strong backlog of international projects as we continue to build on our global footprint,” Myhre went on to say.

Grant Gibson, the founder and chief executive officer of Gate Energy, said, “the Whale project award shows Shell's commitment to Gate in the processes that we have developed to deliver world-class projects for our clients”.

“In such uncertain conditions that our industry is facing, Gate continues to increase and solidify our backlog, invest in our employees, and grow from strength to strength by winning large scale projects all over the world,” he added.

“Gate will be commissioning three of the four mega projects in the Gulf of Mexico over the next year, and with offices in multiple U.S. locations, Singapore, and South Korea, are perfectly poised to continue the growth and expansion over the next decade,” Gibson went on to say.

Shell announced the final investment decision for Whale on July 26. Whale is a deepwater development in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico which is expected to reach peak production of approximately 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and currently has an estimated, recoverable resource volume of 490 million barrels of oil equivalent, according to Shell. Whale, which his 60 percent owned by Shell and 40 percent owned by Chevron, is currently scheduled to begin production in 2024.

Shell announced the final investment decision for Vito back in April 2018. In January that year, Shell revealed “one of its largest U.S. Gulf of Mexico exploration finds in the past decade” from the Whale deepwater well.

Gate Energy describes itself as a family of companies that provide scalable, fit-for-purpose services for the energy sector including engineering, commissioning and specialty field services.

To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com