SBM Offshore

It is a main board listed company on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange and has been a member of the AEX index since 2003.

Gusto's Offshore product line had started with drilling pontoons, which were followed by oil platforms, drillships, single buoy moorings (e.g. the famous Brent Spar), etc.

Gusto Staalbouw built a number of offshore products like jackup rigs, but also the single buoy mooring, which was fundamental for the growth of SBM.

In order to solve this Robert Smulders (from the Gusto family) founded a new IHC daughter company on 27 February 1969.

The holding structure meant that instead of paying 48 % corporate income tax in the Netherlands, IHC paid only 16 % in Switzerland.

The real reason to move there, was that the very international staff required many and speedy work permits, which Switzerland was not willing to provide.

[13] In July 1975 Gusto Slikkerveer delivered a more conventional Single Buoy Mooring of 17 m diameter and a height of 11 m. It was especially designed to unload tankers of over 500,000 DWT.

[14] It shows the character of the first group of single buoy moorings, which were basically meant as near-offshore loading unloading terminals.

In January 1974 Gusto Slikkerveer delivered an ELBSM, 'Exposed Location Single Buoy Mooring', this was a subtype of group II SBM's meant for rough conditions.

[18] In order to get government permission for collective layoffs, and subsidies for modernization, IHC was prepared to get rid of its shipyard Gusto Schiedam.

[23] IHC Inter N.V. was a holding which became the majority owner of the companies which formed the nucleus of SBM Offshore.

The net result was that the profitable international operations of IHC Inc. S.A. became independent,[24] or safe from the possibility that the troubled dredging division could drag it down.

[28] The emission was probably related to IHC stepping into the market for Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) units.

In the annual report over 1980 Caland gave its shares in IHC Holland a nill value, but still made a profit of 17.6 million from other sources.

[32] The first floating production system was Transworld 58, a converted drilling rig, deployed on the Argyll field in the North Sea in 1975.

In 1980 SBM signed a turnkey contract with Amoco for FPSO II, including procurement and conversion of the production tanker.

[37] The system would be owned by SBM, and leased to Amoco Philippines for a minimum of three years, including operating and maintenance crews.

[41] IHC Caland had always mourned the loss of the Engineering Office of Gusto Schiedam, which designed large offshore vessels and structures like oil platforms.

A nice aspect of IHC Holland was that it contained so much old losses, that its contribution to the holding would not be subject to taxes till about 2000.

IHC wanted to prevent competitors from easily (re)entering the dredging market by buying Merwede shipyard.

In 1989 IHC Caland then bought Marine Structure Consultants (MSC), an engineering office that was very successful in the design of jackup rigs.

[56] GustoMSC was subsequently purchased by American multinational oil equipment and rig manufacturer National Oilwell Varco.

[60] In November 2014 SBM Offshore avoided criminal prosecution in the Netherlands by paying a record settlement of $240 million to the Dutch Public prosecutor (OM) for the affairs in Brazil, Angola and Equatorial Guinea.

[62] The center of the corruption scandal was in Brazil, where SBM bribed officials of the state oil company Petrobras in order to secure contracts.

It investigated the role of SBM, whose representative Júlio Faerman was accused of having paid USD 139 million in bribes to Petrobras employees.

[66] In order to be able to take part in Petrobras contracts in the future, SBM agreed to a R$1 billion (c. EUR 285 million) settlement with the Brazilian government.

[69] In late 2017 SBM settled with the American authorities for USD 238 million for bribery in Brazil, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Kazachstan and Iraq.

[74] Other activities include design and engineering, turnkey supply, and specialised services such as maintenance and offshore installation.

The most recent addition to the product line is midscale LNG (liquefied natural gas) FPSOs for a capacity in the range of 1 and 2 MTPA (Million Tonne Per Annum) with Nitrogen expansion liquefaction technology, developed in collaboration with The Linde Group.

[75] The firm operates from five main execution centres: the global headquarters in Schiedam, Monaco, Kuala Lumpur, Houston and Brazil.

Single point mooring at Whiddy Island , Ireland
Upper section of Brent SPAR, an SBM subtype
FPSO Firenze [ 33 ] in 2007, just before break up
Renato Duque services director at Petrobras 2003-2012