living quarters

Specialist Services Celebrating 40 Years in Business

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July 2022 marks 40 successful years in business for Centurion Middle East company Specialist Services.

This is an extraordinary achievement that demonstrates the strength of Specialist Services, its strong industry reputation and the incomparable service they provide to their customers. It is also a reflection of the expertise, loyalty and commitment of all its employees. Our people are our greatest assets and the cornerstone of our business – without their hard work and dedication, achievements such as this wouldn’t be possible.

Specialist Services was formed in the UAE in July 1982  From the first modular buildings, fire-rated products and EPM/EPC projects in the 80s, the company has grown significantly in scope and scale, continuing to innovate and comply to international standards and accreditations, introducing new products, and growing the business locally and internationally.

Still based today in the UAE, Specialist Services has developed an international capability in design, engineering, manufacture, installation and support across a broad range of products and services, including Engineering, Technical Modular Buildings, Modular Rental solutions, Drilling, Testing, Production and Process Packages, Facilities Management Solutions and Service. With more than 100 products and services currently in its portfolio, Specialist Services has completed over 10,000 projects in the last four decades for clients in more than 70 countries around the world.

In June 2021, Specialist Services joined Centurion Group, a global leader in the supply of rentals and services to critical industries. Being part of an international group with significant financial resources like Centurion has allowed Specialist Services to continue to expand and take advantage of the opportunities in the wider Middle East region.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all current and previous employees, as well as all our clients, vendors and partners, who helped us grow over the years, and we look forward to the next 40 years.

70-Man LQ Complex for Sapura Energy

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Specialist Services, a Centurion company, successfully completed a 70-Man Living Quarters Complex for Pegaga Development Project

Sapura Energy awarded Specialist Services an EPCC (Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Commissioning) contract for a 70-Man Modular Living Quarters Complex for Mubadala Petroleum, for the Pegaga Gas Field Project in Malaysia.

Project: 70-Man Living Quarters Complex for Pegaga Development Project
Client: Sapura Energy
End User: Mubadala Petroleum
Location: Block SK320 offshore Sarawak, Malaysia
Project Completion: June 2021

Project requirements

Sapura Energy required a complete turnkey solution for a 70-man living quarters (LQ) complex to be installed on their platform, including design, engineering, procurement, construction, outfitting, installation of equipment, third party approvals, testing and pre-commissioning. The Pegaga Development Project consists of a manned Integrated Central Processing Platform (IPCC), where the LQ needed to be integrated. Based on decades of experience, expertise and track record in providing turnkey LQ projects, in October 2018 the Client awarded the project to Specialist Services.

Solution

This permanent offshore 70-man LQ project was executed in modular construction, in lieu of the conventional stick-build construction method. Optimising the size of the modules during engineering offered the full benefits of offsite fabrication, lower shipping costs as well as integration resources required onsite.

The project involved interface between Sapura Energy and Mubadala Petroleum in Malaysia, and Specialist Services teams based in Dubai, India and Singapore, on engineering, project management, techno-commercial, transportation, installation and delivery support.

With total dimensions of 39.16m x 11.8m x 19m, the LQ was constructed in 4 levels and with a helideck on the top.

Conclusion

The modules were completed and shipped in Q2 of 2020 amidst the restrictions during the pandemic. The situation affected the overall subsequent installation schedule at site in Malaysia, especially due to mobilization of personnel required for the supervision, as well as Client’s own overall installation schedule.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From commercial and technical negotiations to contract award in October 2018, from engineering to completion of modules in 2019 and 2020, and from the supervision at site in Malaysia during a pandemic to the project completion – this project involved extraordinary coordination and efforts by the different teams to complete this full turnkey modular LQ project.

Specialist Services acquires rental assets of HB Rentals outside the Americas

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Further to the continuous development and expansion of Specialist Services Group in Europe, Middle East and Asia, this month we have completed the acquisition of rental assets of HB Rentals outside the Americas for an undisclosed sum.

HB Rentals have serviced their clients with this fleet of offshore accommodation modules and Zone rated office modules from their two locations in Aberdeen in the UK and Abu Dhabi in the UAE. “That geographic footprint, as well as their high quality assets, are very similar to our own rental fleet, but we believe in the value add of acquiring a sizable quantity of 8 man offshore ABS certified accommodation modules. These units significantly increase our capacity to offer larger temporary living quarter solutions in Europe, Middle East and Asia,” said Ian Rogers, Chief Executive Officer at Specialist Services Group.

Along with the rental assets comes a series of new and existing customers, who have been renting these modular buildings from HB Rentals. These assets, contracts and customers are now all part of the Specialist Services Group business since Monday, 12th October 2020.

Specialist Services founding Director, Philip Bond, concluded: “I am pleased that we have bought these assets from HB Rentals. This will strengthen our rental business and having done it in the current market conditions says a lot about Specialist Services Group and our team.”

Specialist Services Group Celebrating 38 Years

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This year, Specialist Services Group is celebrating 38 years of operations as a global supplier of oilfield equipment, modular buildings and packaging solutions for people and equipment in the oil and gas, utility, petrochemical, power, renewables, and defence industries.

Throughout almost four decades, we have developed and refined an international capability in design, engineering, manufacture, installation, and support across our broad range of products and services. At the same time, we have also expanded geographically, with the aim of supporting our clients worldwide through our facilities in the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and North America.

A Brief Overview of Our Milestones

Founded in 1982 as ASCO Specialist Services, in 1985, Specialist Services became a sole proprietorship company owned by Philip Bond. During the first decade of its operations, the company provided quality products and solutions for some of the key players in the Oil & Gas industry, such as TOTAL ABK, Bundoq, Saudi Aramco, and Larsen and Toubro, among others.

Our Facilities

During the first 20 years, our facilities expanded first in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, followed by 15 years of global expansion first into South East Asia and Australia markets with Specialist Services Holdings Pte Ltd established in Singapore in 2010, and in Europe through the acquisition of Labtech Services Limited in Aberdeen, UK, in 2011. This was followed by the setup of a new company in India, Specialist Engineering Services Pvt. Ltd., and two Joint Venture Companies with RedGuard from the USA, including RedGuard Specialist Services based in UAE (2016) and Specialist Services RedGuard based in the USA (2017).

Our Product Range

Known in the industry as a provider of reliable and internationally compliant products, we started with Buildings, fire rated products and EPC projects. Over the last two decades, we then expanded our solutions range by adding Modular Hire, Drilling, Testing, Production and Process Packages (DTPP), as well as turn-key Facilities Management Solutions.

Throughout the years, we have been continuously innovating our products and services, to provide the best solutions for our clients. Within our DTPP solutions, we lead the market designing and delivering onshore and offshore modular well test packages, we have produced the world’s first scalable and flexible modular early production facilities, and also developed and delivered a stand-alone process heater with Sil 2 burner management system for Zone II hazardous area installation. Within our Buildings product range, we provide fully modular living quarters and stressed skin living quarters, and recently we also introduced and delivered modular shooting ranges, modular blast-rated multi-level plant control buildings, and stand-alone self-sufficient blast-rated and gas over-pressured refuge buildings. Within our Modular Hire division, we have also developed the world’s largest ABS compliant offshore accommodation fleet.

Our quality assurance processes and certification verify that our products and services meet the highest quality standards. Our latest certification includes Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance to ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 450001:2018.

Our Largest Projects

Throughout the years, within our Buildings division, we have worked on various large projects, such as 58 Man Living Quarters for ConocoPhillips, Bongkot Phase 4A Living Quarters Platform for PTTEP in Thailand, a 50 man Living Quarters Extension for Chevron in Thailand, Local Equipment Room and Local Control Room Buildings for Zakum Development Company (ZADCO) in UAE, a Control Building for Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) in Kuwait, Substation Modules for National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC) and ADMA-OPCO in UAE, and the latest large project—70 Man 4-Level Living Quarter for Mubadala Petroleum in Malaysia, among others.

Some of Our Latest Achievements

In 2013, DNV GL awarded us the renewal of the DNV Manufacturing Survey Arrangement (or MSA), confirming once again Specialist Services’ high quality and reliable products manufacture, while in 2014, the Public Health and Safety Department of Dubai Municipality awarded Specialist Services as a role model organisation in the manufacturing sector for the management of occupational health and safety during the year 2012-2013. The same year, we launched the G4 Global, the first globally compliant office module, and received the Type Approval (TA) Certificate from ABS for 20ft A60 4 Men Portable Accommodation Modules. A year later, we launched FLEX 33 Accommodation Modules, compliant with the stringent ABS code.

In 2016, Zakher Marine International awarded us a rental contract for a 77-module, 150 man TLQ complex to accommodate ZADCO personnel offshore Abu Dhabi—one of the largest TLQ projects in the world. The same year, we also celebrated 6 million man-hours without Lost Time Injuries. Since 2017, we have been also achieving very high Customer Loyalty Score results, above 70%, and since 2019 over 80%, which reflect a high level of customer satisfaction with our solutions. This year, Abdul K. Molla, Welder at Specialist Services, won the first prize at SteelFab 2020 in UAE, proving the high level of professionalism of our employees.

This is just a short snapshot of some of our achievements, proving our quality and professionalism in all aspects of our business. While we are proud of what we have accomplished over almost four decades, we still have ambitious plans for the future.

58 Man Living Quarters for ConocoPhillips

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Specialist Services announces the completion of the engineering, procurement, construction and load-out of a 58 Man Offshore Living Quarters on schedule, on budget and within weight requirements.

This project had a number of key factors that dictated its design and made it one of Specialist Services most challenging projects to date.

1. Weight Restrictions
A stringent weight restriction of maximum 750 tonnes for a single Lift was required by the Client and Owner. Specialist Services was able to meet this criterion by utilising their experience of design and fabrication through using a stressed skin structural design and lightweight materials such as GRP bathroom modules, aluminium helideck and fire divisions and others.

2. Fire Wall Systems
As the accommodation will be located on a Process Platform the external bulkheads were required to be a combination of J30 (Jet Fire) and H60 (Hydrocarbon) fire ratings with blast characteristics. Specialist Services extensive knowledge of fire and blast divisions has allowed for the successful use of the latest lightweight bulkhead systems integrating a stressed skin design, thus providing a protective barrier for those living and working within the module.

3. Safety
As the Accommodation is to be placed in a potentially Hazardous Area all external fittings such as HVAC equipment, lighting etc. were required to be Zone 2 compliant. The module is fitted out with the latest fire and gas safety warning and extinguishing systems.

4. Fit Out
The living quarters comprising of four levels was designed internally using marine quality, aesthetically pleasing finishes for furnishings and fittings in order to provide a comfortable working and living environment. It comprises offices, bedrooms, recreation area, gymnasium, galley, dining room, infirmary, laundry, mosque, electrical distribution room, TER room and control room. Load out of the building was undertaken successfully on Thursday, 29th May 2008. This the first leg of a 5,000 mile trip where the module will then become an integral part of the CPP deck being fabricated in Batam. The finished topsides are to be located in the North Belut Oil Field Indonesia.

Colin Forster – Project Director said, “We at Specialist Services are pleased to announce the successful completion of this 58 man living quarters module on time and within budget, and that the quality and the finishing detail surpassed the client’s expectations. The module which is destined for Indonesian waters has been fitted out to the latest IMO requirements”.

Colin continued: “Specialist Services has a unique position as designers and fabricators of topside modules because in addition to overall fabrication we also manufacture the majority of the components that go into the construction of these buildings. These include fire and blast doors, windows, bulkheads, wet units and furniture, all of which are certified by third parties. We are committed to providing safe and comfortable living environments for oilfield operating personnel around the world and are proud of our reputation in the market for excellent products”.

“This has been a successful project for us and we look forward to working once again with both the owner and client in the future,” concluded Colin.

Modular Construction Savings for Thailand’s Erawan Platform Living Quarters Extension

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Specialist Services announces the completion of a 50 Man Offshore Living Quarters (LQ) Module extension now installed on the Erawan platform in the Gulf of Thailand. Designed and manufactured in 8 months, the LQ consists of 4, 2 and 1 Man Cabins laid out over 16 units on two levels.

Living Quarters of this size are normally manufactured as single jetty side modules and shipped for final installation using heavy lift crane barges which has high cost implications.

By ensuring that each unit weighed not more than 10 Tonnes, it was possible to utilise the existing platform crane and thus avoid the high cost and logistical problems of hiring a heavy lift barge. The units were fabricated and pre-assembled to form the complete living quarters in Specialist Services Dubai yard. Before disassembling the entire module services were tested and pre- commissioned to ensure dimensional and functionality of equipment prior to shipping.

All services including electrical, Plumbing, HVAC, Telecommunication and fire and gas systems were all pre-installed during manufacture. Special hook up connections were provided between each unit for disassembly at yard and reassembly at site thus allowing the modules to be quickly connected and commissioned.

The lightweight pre-engineered units considerably reduced the risk over heavy lift applications during offshore installation as they were easily handled and lifted from a supply vessel and maneuvered into position. Offshore installation and hook-up was undertaken by the clients own personnel.

The installation, hook-up and commissioning took just 8 weeks to complete. The existing Living Quarters remained operational during the installation process.

Bongkot Phase 4A LQ Platform Project

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Project Name: Bongkot Phase 4A Living Quarters Platform Project

Client: PTTEP, Thailand

Main EPC Contractor: PT Gunanusa Utama Fabricators, (PTG) Indonesia

Specialist Services Scope of supply:

  • EPM (Engineering, Procurement and Management of the LQ portion of the project)
  • Manufacture and supply of certified doors, windows and wet units
  • Piping, instrumentation, electrical wiring, HVAC, F&G, etc.

Construction Time: 18 Months