August 2006 25
MR: How did you become involved
in the maritime field?
Crager: I became involved in the mar-
itime field as an ocean engineer at Texas
A&M. I was a co-op student and spent
12 months in various areas working for
Otis Engineering, which Halliburton
later acquired. I spent eight months of
this time offshore and confirmed that
this was an area where I wanted to be
involved. I initially started in the
drilling industry and was exposed to the
design of rigs. I also was very involved
with offshore production operations
during my time at Oceaneering, when I
started and managed a group that
focused on floating production systems.
MR: What are the three of the most
significant changes that have
occurred within the maritime indus-
try in the last five years?
Crager:
a. The oil and gas boom market has used
up most of the existing tonnage, and
industry has fewer vessels available
today for drilling or for conversion to
floating production than in the past.
b. The continued phasing out of tankers
due to OPA 90 has significantly changed
the market for hulls that could be con-
verted to floating production/storage
offloading systems (FPSOs). Most
FPSO providers also are focusing on
units with double hulls to accommodate
regional requirements. As a result, even
single-hull vessels coming out of tanker
service may not be used for FPSO con-
version.
c. The continued need for trained per-
sonnel, exacerbated by the high median
age of our industry, is a challenge across
the oil and gas sector. This dilemma
also impacts the maritime industry, and
trained personnel will become more and
more difficult to locate.
MTR: How has the industry changed
from when you began your career?
Crager: The industry has changed sig-
nificantly since I began my career in
1975. At that time, floating production
systems did not exist, industry had
installed only a small number of subsea
wells and drilling rigs were limited to
approximately 4,500 ft. of water. We
now have almost 200 floating produc-
tion systems, more than 2,000 subsea
wells and rigs that drill in more than
10,000 ft. of water. These technology
strides are dramatic. That is, industry's
continued drive for innovation to sup-
port the exploration and development of
new reservoirs-that are increasingly
remote and challenging-has elevated
and extended technology performance.
A critical component of this success is
the understanding and value of lessons
learned; thus carrying industry forward
as demand increases exponentially, par-
ticularly among emerging regional mar-
kets, such as Southeast Asia, Russia,
China, Eastern Europe, West Africa and
Latin America.
MR: What investments is INTEC
making that are intended for the
long-term health of the company?
Crager: INTEC's greatest asset is its
people, making our primary investment
employee career development, knowl-
edge retention and technology develop-
ment. This effort supports the compa-
ny's engineering and technology-driven
initiatives and systems that serve our
clients' needs for safe, reliable develop-
ments. INTEC believes in providing
sustainable career growth through on-
site project training and mentoring and
lunch-and-learn sessions. The result is
that we're able to push the technology
envelope while providing expert train-
ing and hands-on exposure to frontier
projects. We also invest in processes and
systems for knowledge-sharing among
the company's various operations world-
wide. Our investments further include
geographic diversification to support
increasing deepwater and offshore arctic
development opportunities.
MR: What is your annual R&D
expenditure? Can you go into detail
regarding the focus of current major
R&D projects?
Crager: While INTEC values and
invests in R&D in-house, we create our
greatest R&D value by assisting clients
in qualifying emerging technologies for
their actual projects. Our primary focus,
and we believe one of our most signifi-
cant industry contributions, has been the
expansion of technology in subsea oil
and gas production and transportation
system design. Examples include: sub-
sea flowline heating for hydrate preven-
tion and recovery; subsea processing
and flow metering; offshore arctic
pipeline design technology; cryogenic
pipeline system capabilities; and deep-
water riser system analysis and design
methodologies; and control buoy appli-
cations.
MR: How have industry and/or cus-
tomer demands and changes signifi-
cantly affected the product and serv-
ice offerings of INTEC?
Crager: Industry's various mergers and
acquisitions over the last few years have
led to fewer but larger clients and shifts
in engineering approaches for capital
projects. In some cases, these changes
have resulted in more opportunities for
INTEC to grow its full-scope engineer-
ing capability, beginning with conceptu-
al and front-end detailed engineering
through to detailed design work and
construction management. INTEC also
sees more opportunities for its services
as an owner's engineer, particularly
among national oil companies (NOCs),
which require a full spectrum of engi-
neering and project management servic-
es. Acting as an owner's engineer, we're
able to create a complete field develop-
ment solution while gaining increased
efficiencies for an operator.
In general, frontier projects increasingly
demand integrated services from engi-
neering through to construction.
INTEC teams with construction con-
tractors to provide such services.
Industry's serious shortage of skilled
personnel combined with an increasing
demand for integrated services, howev-
er, could limit the company's ability to
grow. Large- to medium-sized specialty
engineering companies like INTEC now
compete with manpower providers and
independent consultants that once were
employees of engineering service com-
panies. Separately, increased oil and gas
development projects in areas such as
West Africa, Brazil, the Mediterranean,
Australia and Malaysia find INTEC
well-placed geographically, with operat-
ing and project offices around the world.
MR: How does the continued trend
of new ship construction evolving in
the Far East, particularly China,
affect your business?
Crager: We see China as a potential
area of growth, and we are evaluating
our strategy for it. Our Malaysian and
Australian operations have developed
significant FPSO/FSO design and con-
struction capabilities over the last few
years. We believe these floater designs
Q&A with Bruce Crager, CEO, Intec Engineering
Shipbuilding Technology
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