2011 Annual Report - SBM Offshore

1.2 Company Profile
1.2.1 Introduction
SBM Offshore’s business is to provide floating production solutions to the offshore energy industry, over the full
product life-cycle. The Company is market leading in leased floating production systems, with 16 units currently in
operation, and has an unrivalled experience in this field, over 140 cumulative years. In addition, the Company
also provides floating production systems on a turnkey sale basis to clients.
Headquartered in Schiedam, the Company employs over 6200 people worldwide, who spread over five main
execution centres, eight operational shore bases, several construction yards and the offshore fleet of vessels.
Overview of Operations
The Company’s main activity is the design, supply, installation and operation of Floating Production, Storage and
Offloading (FPSO) vessels. These are either owned and operated by the Company and leased to our clients, in
which case the project is financed by the Company and any joint venture partners. Alternatively the Company also
undertakes FPSO projects for clients on a turnkey sale basis, where these vessels may either be operated by the
client, or operated by the Company under a separate service contract. In this case financing is provided by the
client.
For projects where FPSOs are not the optimum development solution, the Company also has in its product
portfolio a range of other floating production solutions. The Company has built over several years a large in-house
engineering, procurement and project management capability, to ensure consistency from project to project, and
so enable a continuous improvement process for enhancement of product quality.
Construction work is outsourced to leading shipyards in locations best suited to each specific project, and taking
into account local content regulations where appropriate. The Company owns a share of the PAENAL
construction yard in Angola, and has established a joint venture in Brazil to utilise the capacity of the BRASA yard
in Rio de Janeiro, as part of our local content strategy.
The Company considers itself to be a Technology Leader in the industry, and is constantly working with clients to
push the limits of existing products, and to develop new products to fill key technology gaps. This development
work is now performed in each of the four main execution centres, and in the Company’s dedicated R&D
laboratory in France.
The Company’s heritage lays in shallow water mooring terminals for loading and unloading of tankers. This
remains an important product line for the Company, both for the supply and installation of new terminals, as well
as the service, overhaul and repair of the large number of terminals already in service around the world.
This is a customized selection from the SBM Offshore N.V. Annual Report 2011
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