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Boosted by offshore LOC expands Australian marine services

Boosted by offshore LOC expands Australian marine services
On the back of the “unprecedented” level of investment in the Australian offshore sector London Offshore Consultants (LOC) is expanding its marine services business in the country with a new operation based in Sydney

LOC, a marine services warranty provider and engineering consultancy, has seen a major boost in its business in Perth, on the back of the hefty investments being made in LNG projects offshore Australia.

“We’ve currently got the largest orderbook in the group on the unprecedented level of new investment in the region,” Alex Harrison, managing director of LOC Australia told Seatrade Global.

Celebrating 25 years in Australia, based in Perth, LOC has been able to leverage on its longstanding oil industry relationships to win contracts on the Gorgon, Wheatstone and Ichthys projects, which are seeing hundreds of billions of dollars of investments.

Underscoring the growth that this has given LOC it has gone from a staff of three to 24 in Perth, plus 15 freelance surveyors, in the space of six years. Harrison said the Australian offshore work is also providing work throughout Asia – Pacific for example on fabrication projects.

The massive investment phase in Australian offshore will not, however, last forever.   “We’re wary there’s probably only so much infrastructure the country needs and you then need to consolidate and get some cashflow from that.  It’s a bit unclear how many more onshore gas plants will be needed in Australia, there’s obviously a push to offshore floating LNG facilities,” Harrison explained.

LOC believes it will continue have a major role to play in Australian offshore as the market shifts from a construction to an operational phase, but it is also using the current boom to expand its marine business across Australia.

While LOC’s business globally splits roughly 50 – 50 between offshore and marine, in Australia offshore currently accounts for in the region of 90% of its business. While it has been involved in major casualties in the region such as the Shen Neng 1, the West Atlas and Rena in New Zealand, it has been less involved in the day-to-day work it does for P&I Clubs and lawyers in other parts of the world.

“What we’re keen to do is build on the marine services the group provides already across the rest of the world and make sure we’re capturing that market here,” he said. “We think there is definitely a market there as there are lot of one man band players around the coast of Australia but there isn’t the corporate type player the whole range of services and we think there is room for that.”

To this end LOC is opening up in Sydney, with an aim to expand across the eastern coast of Australia. Heading up the new operation will be Drew Shannon, a master mariner, who previously worked for salvors Switzer and joins from Sydney Ferries.