A BRAND new consortium in Aberdeenshire has started a five-year contract with Total.
PBS, which has offices in Westhill, is comprised of Paris-headquartered Ponticelli UK, Brand Energy and Infrastructure Services – which is part of US group BrandSafway – and Danish firm Semco Maritime.
The huge TUPE transfer of more than 650 includes workers from Total, Petrofac, Worley, Aker, Bilfinger and Stork, plus 50 new hires directly to PBS.
The work officially began on May 1, with PBS managing asset integrity, maintenance and reliability, fabric maintenance, shutdowns and modification projects for all Total UK operated assets, which currently produce more than 340,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Olivier Renaud, PBS general maintenance and operations support contract director, said: “I am delighted and so proud that we have reached this point.
“The PBS team has worked well with TEPUK’s teams throughout the transition phase. Our focus has always been to implement this as smoothly and as safely as possible, and although COVID-19 provided some setbacks, we have been able to react calmly and evolve with the changing situation.
“We are grateful to TEPUK and the incumbent contractors who have supported us throughout this process, as we successfully communicated with the workforce, answered any questions and minimised uncertainty.
“People and safety have, and always will be, a key priority in how we work and our approach will not change going forward. Our working model now provides us with a huge opportunity that doesn’t come along often to try something different and we encourage everyone to get involved.”
