LOC’s 2020 Highlights and Looking Ahead to 2021

LOC made solid progress in 2020, culminating in it meeting its annual expectations and executing a deal with AqualisBraemar to create a wider platform, to meet the opportunities created by the energy transition agenda. This was achieved despite the inevitable challenges presented by the pandemic, which required the Group to find innovative solutions to ensure LOC could continue to deliver for its clients.

Work related to the renewables sector was particularly strong in 2020. LOC has a solid track record of supporting projects in Europe but also saw an acceleration of activity in Asia, winning several contracts across the continent, during the year. Equally, there was an acceleration of activity in the wider energy transition markets, with LOC growing its position within floating solar and supporting change across the shipping industry.

In the oil & gas market, LOC maintained its strong position in the industry, with a significant amount of work in North America, AsiaPacific, North Sea and other jurisdictions. This was despite the challenges faced by the sector, driven by the effects of COVID, including low and volatile resource pricing. In the latter part of the year, the Company saw somewhat of a recovery in the oil price and with low levels of investment across the industry in recent years, there is hope for a better 2021 and beyond.

Key Highlights:

Strong performance in the Offshore Windfarm market, consolidating LOC’s leading position, particularly in Asia, with several new contract wins:

• Considerable growth in the Chinese and Vietnamese markets, having won most offshore wind projects in each country during 2020, including 8 contracts in China and 5 in Vietnam
• Continued strong contract wins in European offshore wind for MWS
• Consolidated its market-leading position in floating wind technology, with the completion of MWS work for the Windfloat Atlantic project, involving the installation of the largest floating platform turbine to date

Strengthened position within the wider energy transition market, including floating solar and shipping, using insightful and innovative solutions across the field of marine renewables and sustainability activities:

• Completion of MWS work on the IFA2 Interconnector – the 2nd interconnector between UK and France – promoting and accelerating the exchange of carbon-neutral electricity between the UK and the continent
• Innosea worked across more than 50 floating solar projects, with a total capacity of over 990 MWp, placing itself at the forefront of innovation and development in that market
• Innosea supported the PORTOS project – a European-funded initiative promoting the integrated use of marine renewable sources in Atlantic Area ports; looking at the intelligent harnessing of offshore wind power, tidal and wave power to reduce the carbon footprint of port infrastructure
• Launch of the TRITΩN Platform, developed in response to the Poseidon Principles, to facilitate the multi-fleet assessment of carbon emissions and the integration of ESG and decarbonisation criteria into financial lending decisions in the shipping market
• Rapid development of a service offering, covering the engineering and integration of alternative fuels and clean shipping technology – including hybrid and fuel-cell technology for vessels

Practical and pragmatic support to shipping clients throughout the pandemic, drawing on LOC’s extensive global network of specialist consultants and the development of innovative digital and remote solutions, driving service efficiency where applicable:

• Growth of our global footprint, with specialist consultants across more than 200 locations, in over 60 countries worldwide
• Development of remote surveying programmes where deemed applicable depending on the nature of the work, supporting the execution of various marine assurance and risk services
• Developed remote surveying programmes to support dynamic positioning (DP) trials, which were readily adopted by several high-profile clients

Maintained its leading position in oil & gas, despite a challenging year:  

• Secured high-profile new project scopes across oil & gas, many with returning clients
• These include MWS for the SURF development on the Johan Sverdrup field for Equinor, new FPSO projects for SBM Offshore, and MWS and marine assurance on Ichthys LNG for INPEX Operations Australia P/L, amongst others
• Reached a significant milestone and an industry first on the Tengizchevroil FGP-WPMP project, reaching 100,000 global MWS man hours incident-free on site, as reported in January 2020
• LOC supported on 18 decommissioning projects across 11 jurisdictions in 2020, including marine warranty survey, decommissioning studies and other engineering, design and analysis consultancy support

Outlook

Looking ahead into 2021, the enlarged AqualisBraemar LOC Group creates a platform for it to offer a broader and higher-level service to its clients. It is based on the deepest pool of expertise across marine, engineering and adjusting disciplines and a wider global footprint.

The enlarged platform also places the Group in a strong position to expand and grow into the energy transition market, with a meaningful and robust commitment to supporting the energy transition agenda across different marine markets