Global Industries

Relationships are everything

From its origins as a venture offering diving services in the US, few could have predicted that in 2008, Global Industries would become the world’s leading providers of offshore construction, engineering and support services.

Building on its expertise in diving, the business is now capable of offering services such as pipeline construction and platform installation and removal to operators in the oil and gas industry. The company’s growth over the past few years has been so remarkable that Fortune Magazine named Global Industries as the tenth Fastest Growing Company in the US last year, just a few places behind Apple Computer.

Working with most of the major players in the offshore sector worldwide, Global Industries values strong relationships to assure a quality service foremost, as well as to guarantee future business.

The company’s name is indicative of the scope it has within the oil and gas industry: outside of its headquarters in Carlyss, Global Industries has offices across the Americas, and is notably present in the Gulf of Mexico and the Mexican Bay of Campeche. The business also operates in West Africa, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and India, with a total of 32 vessels positioned all over the world. Global Industries operates a number of construction vessels, including the Global 1200, Hercules, Chickasaw, and Titan 2; multi-service vessels, most notably the Olympic Challenger, REM Commander, and the Pioneer; cargo-launch barges, particularly the CB3, CB6, and the Power Barge One; dive support vessels, such as the Sea Cat, Sea Fox, Sea Leopard, and the Ocean Winsertor; finally, the organisation charters a range of offshore support vessels, including the Sea Puma, El Ingeneiro, and the Subtec One.

In addition, the company has just announced that two new state-of-the-art, high-tech vessels are being added to the fleet: The Global 1201, the sister ship to the 1200; and the Global Orion, sister ship to the Challenger. The addition of these ships means that Global has added six new vessels to its fleet in the past 11 months, a feat unmatched in the field.

Harvey, Louisiana is where Global Diving began in 1973, the first building block that would see the company develop to become a leading offshore construction business across the world. The organisation expanded and increased its capabilities through diversifying its portfolio via acquisitions of related businesses. Following the rise and fall of the oil and gas industry on a global basis, the first sector the diving company branched into was pipe laying, adding experienced personnel and equipment to its team through the acquisition of Pipelines Inc in 1975. The bust in the oil market during the 1980s provided a number of opportunities to add to Global Industries, and the company acquired Sea-Con Services, Santa Fe Offshore Construction Company, Teledyne Movible Offshore, Divcon International, ROV Technologies, and the Red Adair Company during this period, alongside selected assets from Subsea International, J. Ray McDermott, Halliburton, and Oceaneering International.

Throughout its history, Global Industries has achieved a number of notable records and firsts within the offshore sector. For example, in 1977, the company designed and fabricated the first four-driver control van. This was followed in 1985 by the completion of the world’s deepest wet welding procedure, at a depth of 325 feet. In 1989, the Gulf of Mexico’s deepest working dive was established at 1075 feet through Global’s involvement on Conoco’s Jolliet project. Equally, in 1995, the business was integral in pulling the world’s deepest J-tube riser installation at the Bullwinkle Platform at a depth of 1350 feet as part of Shell’s Rocky project. In 2001, the company displayed its pipeline capabilities by laying 214 joints on a 40-inch pipeline in just 24 hours, on Brunei Shell’s Ampa Fairley Rationalisation project. Finally, Global was the first to lay 12-inch chrome pipelines in 2003, as part of Marathon Oil’s Alba Phase 2 project in Equatorial Guinea.

Nowadays, the company prides itself on being the partner of choice for operators in the oil and gas industry, built upon this process of steady expansion through acquisition. Global Industries penchant for innovation, risk taking, and natural leadership has won many contracts, as has the organisation’s presence worldwide. The emphasis throughout the operation is to provide affordable solutions for clients in the offshore sector to meet global energy needs, to maximise a customer’s profitability, and ultimately to complete projects safely, on time, and to budget. Global Industries values honesty, integrity, and respect above all other facets in working alongside clients, and its core competencies are built upon leadership, communication, adaptability, team commitment, and superior technical knowledge.

The company’s technological know-how cannot be doubted – over 25 years of operating in the oil and gas industry has put Global Industries at the cutting edge of state-of-the-art construction and marine support equipment and processes. For instance, the organisation is unsurpassed in its provision of horizontal reel pipelay, mudbug technology, automatic welding, wet welding, and dry hyperbaric welding methodologies within offshore environments. These techniques have grown through Global Industries excellent research and development centres, and the competence of its operation staff. Indeed, the organisation’s centre is run in consortium with the Colorado School of Mines to conduct research in underwater welding techniques, applicable in oil and gas environments. The company’s motto is “if it can be done, we’ve done it – if it can’t be done, we’ll find a way.”

This experience develops beyond the ‘nuts and bolts’ of operations in the field. The company is also heavily involved in the explosion in the field of communication and information systems within the industry, seen most eminently in the ‘Global Sky’ technology, which links all vessels and facilities data transmissions via a satellite communication system, operating in real time. Global is also keen to utilise all modern video conferencing and streaming technological developments, and the management is keen for the company to remain at the cutting edge of all major system innovations. All executives are entered into concentrated programmes at Harvard Business School, and the Baker Institute at Rice University, to sharpen this knowledge of technical application in industry.

Global industries has a number of major strategic initiatives under its belt at this time. The first is to increase the amount of deepwater projects – over 1000 feet in depth – an environment where the bidding process is fierce. The company is focusing on widening its market share, in a sector affected by the competition provided by international operators, deepwater ownership issues, and national operating policies. Global is also seeking to expand its presence in the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa, which will require dedicated attention and project management, particularly at the company’s facilities in Lagos, Nigeria, and at the port of Tema, in Ghana. The business also has operations teams working in South America and the Caribbean, and its Houston team that deals with projects in the Mediterranean, the Middle East and India. Finally, the organisation is planning to upgrade its existing assets to improve Global’s overall capabilities, vessels, and welding facilities. For instance, the company has installed a 1200-ton, 116-foot diameter pipe reel onboard the Hercules, which will increase its capacity for advanced deepwater pipe laying. The 40-foot tall reel is the largest of its kind in the world, offering a potential spool of up to 85 metres of six-inch pipe, or ten miles of 18-inch pipes in depths of up to 10,000 feet.

It is important to highlight Global Industries’ commitment to safety throughout every level of its organisation, and HSE considerations are made a top priority. All business is conducted with respect towards employees, customers, and the environment, and it is the company’s responsibility to inform, counsel, and educate employees in its HSE policy, to fully develop and implement the procedures. Global’s personnel are considered its most important asset, so the business is committed to safety excellence, and a goal of zero accidents.

Global Industries presence within the oil and gas industry worldwide has been established through the close working relationships it has developed with operators it has dealt with. The company has worked on shallow, intermediate, and deep-water projects within the offshore environment, dealing with a variety of construction tasks such as installation, maintenance, repair, and the removal of facilities. Before undertaking a project, Global’s team makes sure it understands the conditions it is entering before it fully commits human, marine, and technological resources. It is through this approach that an organisation meets the expectations of its clients, and ensures continued projects in the future.

Global Industries

Services: Offshore construction, engineering and support services