Lamprell
Lamprell Reimagines with New Board and Management Team in Place
Lamprell’s purpose has long been to provide best-in-class project services and solutions for the energy industry, and a recent reorganisation has resulted in an increased focus on the group’s strategy and part in renewables and the energy transition while it continues to support its core oil & gas business segment. The result is that Lamprell is doing its bit to best align with customer needs and enable optimum access to opportunities in its core markets.
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Lamprell enjoys more than 45 years’ experience in delivering world-class projects to the international energy industry, since its establishment in 1976. A leading provider of EPCI contracting services, the company drives strategy and growth through its renewables and oil and gas business units.
Underpinned by almost half a century of expertise, and staffed by more than 5,000 people through its primary facilities in Hamriyah, in the UAE, and those in Saudi Arabia, Lamprell has tirelessly established its reputation for delivering projects safely, to the highest standards of quality, on time, and to budget.
Lamprell has set about transforming its business to thrive in the energy transition, offering foundation fabrication and other services for the offshore wind sector alongside activities in its traditional oil & gas segment including the delivery of modules, platforms and rig construction and refurbishment projects. “Over the years, we have gained a foothold in energy markets with significant barriers to entry,” explains CEO Ian Prescott, “and we continue to evolve the business to deliver more sustainable and differentiated solutions.” “The world around us is changing, and the way that we think about energy is changing, too.”
Ian Prescott, CEO
NEW DIRECTION
For a very long-established player in the Middle East, this represented a significant change in direction, Prescott underlines. “As with many other EPCI contractors, the company has been through some hard times in recent years,” he admits. “Lamprell failed to win sufficient business and ended up becoming financially distressed. Our major Saudi Arabian shareholders started acquiring Lamprell’s shares on the open market, which were listed on the London Stock Exchange. They took a controlling interest in late August and then decided to delist with the process being completed in October last year.”
“Lamprell is now a private company, the shareholders have put in place a new Board of Directors, to reflect the new ownership structure, and the Board has in turn refreshed the management team with highly experienced individuals from the industry.”
“These are hugely exciting times, and we can all see the potential in the company; we are in fact starting to realise some of that potential already. We are under new ownership with new direction, have a new Board as well as new and energized management team, and we want to share that news far and wide.”
Extensive renewables experience has already allowed Lamprell to build several multi-purpose jackup vessels and hundreds of wind turbine substructures including jackets, suction buckets and piles, with a multi-billion dollar bid pipeline of renewables projects in the offing. The company is also currently delivering 62 transition pieces through its renewables production line. “A major part of the company’s new direction was to invest in what we have called our ‘growing line’, a production line to cater for the serial fabrication of monopiles and transition pieces for the offshore wind sector,” Prescott adds. “Things like this are what make us, quite frankly, the best-kept secret in the Middle East, and certainly in the renewables sector. We have this capability, and we now want to share it with the Industry.
“We have revitalised the business development area of the Group,” Prescott emphasises, “and our pipeline is looking incredibly healthy. I doubt that there is a renewables project where we do not have some involvement in our addressable markets.”
In Lamprell’s oil & gas business, recent business development efforts have paved the way for the likes of the award in August by the National Petroleum Construction Company (NPCC), for the fabrication, painting, and load-out of five offshore jackets and boat landings with an optional scope, including the supply and fabrication of grillage and sea-fastening of the structures.”
“With an overall fabrication weight of almost 14,000 tonnes, we are approaching this project with the same passion and determination that have fuelled our achievements in the past to ensure we deliver an outstanding project safely,” Prescott reiterates. “This is an important project award which serves as another indication of the progress Lamprell is making through its key strategic partnerships in the Middle East region.”
This is an interesting situation for Lamprell, Prescott stresses, in partnership with a competitor, but when the call came from NPCC, Lamprell was only too happy to assist. “We had the capacity, and were delighted to support this significant project. We are well underway with the engineering and have already done the first steel cut on the jackets; progress has been quite positive.”
Lamprell’s renewables production line, located in its Hamriyah facility in the UAE
POSITIVE FOOTING
Lamprell has in fact been a pioneer company in the renewables arena since the award in 2007 to build its first self-propelled multi-purpose vessel. By 2021, a total of 138 wind farm jackets, 90 suction buckets and 180 piles had been delivered for the East Anglia ONE, Moray East and Seagreen wind farms, while Lamprell also received the Middle East’s first green trade finance facility for the Seagreen project in 2021.
The group’s new state-of-the-art renewables production line was called into service in 2022, this time in connection with Moray West offshore wind farm, to deliver 62 transition pieces, which Lamprell is currently executing. “This project is proceeding really well,” Prescott confirms, “and we are actually on the cusp of delivering the first batch of transition pieces as expected, on budget and with an outstanding health and safety record. We are also on track to meet the various forthcoming deliveries over the remainder of the year, ahead of the final batches within Q1 of next year.”
“Lamprell continues to actively target the growing renewables industry in its traditional European and UK markets as well as new geographies, including the USA, which continues to gain traction,” Prescott continues. “What sets us apart in particular is the knowledge transfer that has taken place as we have redefined the business; everybody working on our renewables project and the production line today is a long-term Lamprell employee, employing the precision engineering which has always been our business and growing the knowledge share within the company.”
This deep well of knowledge and experience is part of what truly sets Lamprell apart, Prescott adds. “I have been hugely impressed by the people who we have within our business,” he beams. “This is the number one asset in any company like ours, and we have some incredible people. Over 1,000 of our total staff have been with Lamprell in excess of 15 years, a massive figure and a dedication which allows us to retain a lot of relevant, valuable experience to allow us to execute these types of projects.”
A lot has been underway at Lamprell of late, and Prescott as CEO, in post since April this year, has hit the ground running. “I wanted to establish the new strategy for the company going forward,” he says. “We gathered together a broad-base spectrum of 15 employees for a strategy session which took place over two days, and the outcome of that was our key business pillars and fresh strategy to present to the Board. Each business pillar owner has presented a business case for expansion. Targets and goals have been discussed at length and presented. We are in the process of finalising this exercise, which has been the product of many long hours of work by our dedicated team, and getting the green light from the Board to proceed with the selected plans.”
Lamprell’s refreshed and reimagined direction coincides with the tremendous global growth in offshore wind, with an additional 200GW to be brought on stream by 2030 and a further 128GW by 2035. The positivity abounding at Lamprell has been mirrored in the evaluation of its work to date in this burgeoning field, Prescott shares. “The refreshing thing when we meet prospective renewables clients, who are a close knit group, is that when they talk to people who we are currently working with – such as Moray West’s owners, Ocean Winds, for example – the feedback is highly complementary. Now, increasingly, companies in Europe, and in the USA, where we have a number of opportunities, are looking at us to see what we can deliver,” Prescott reveals, and Lamprell is unequivocally positioned to do so.
“We know that we are commercially competitive, and we have built a far-reaching confidence around both the price and the quality of our product, all held together by an outstanding health and safety record – this is borne out of the oil & gas sector and improving day on day through the work with our renewables clients.” Prescott concludes. “We believe we can deliver a compelling offer and we are well placed to benefit from the many new prospects offered by the energy transition.”