Rab

Have any of the offshore / oil contingent had any experience of working with/for The Apache Oil Corp ? Feedback much appreciated . Thanks

Corpulent Tosser

Hadn't even heard of them prior to the Forties thing - still at least they are not a bunch of cowboys

Craig Mac21

Hi

I have worked on a few of there rigs in the gulf of Mexico a few years back.
No problems but that might be due to the fact i was there to do specific jobs and was well looked after

Craig

robinH20MRV

nope, never heard of them, but i work far east, so............

caz1562

I've heard they don't like of cowboys though........

Most of the guys I've spoken to on Forties are well gutted with this news. Came as a massive surprise to us yesterday.

JohnS

iTrader: (1)

Derek,

I'm surprised you only found out yesterday. I heard about it around the middle of last week, and I'm usually the last person to hear news like this!

John

evojkp

What news? I take it 40's has been sold just like MonArb.

JohnS

iTrader: (1)

John, yes Forties has been sold to the Apache Corporation.

caz1562

Yip JohnS I only found that out on Monday night when I returned to work.

Evojkp - BP sold Forties fields & small equity fields in Gulf of Mexico for £1b - They're re-structuring their North Sea organisation ???????

evojkp

I'd heard rumours about this a while back, but was under the impression that other BP platforms would go first, Millar, Andrew and a good majority of the southern sector inheritated from Amoco.

I think it is only a matter of time before they pull out of the UK for more lucrative spoils elsewhere.

I hope I'm wrong.

caz1562

I hope you're wrong too.

scoobydo6969

i bet there r a few BP people kicking them selves now 4 not taking the pay off packages they were offered last year and waiting a few more years 4 a bit more!!!!!
from what ive heard the new people will not be offering that at all.

Rab

JohnS, what circles do you move in? This seems to have been top secret until last weekend and then it was only a rumour. From what i heard the OIMs etc only found out late Sunday

Carl Davey

iTrader: (3)

The line i heard from BP is that production from the five rigs that were sold has dropped considerably since the field was first commisioned - 46,000bpd compared to near 500,000 IIRC. The view is that it's not worth BP bothering to run fields tha are in that situation when more money can be made through exploration.

BP has the capitol to explore new fields whereas smaller companies, such as Apache, haven't - therefore running the Forties field is more suited to their needs.

Btw, all BP employees on the rigs in question (4 manned, 1 unmanned) have been offered the equvalent job with Apache and the package is rumoured to be quite good.


I hope that you can understand that, it seems to have lost a bit in translation between my brain and my fingers...

evojkp

Carl, I hope you are right about the packages. One of my mates is an OTL on the 40's and the word on Tuesday was a change of hats, no package, just continued employment.

Carl Davey

iTrader: (3)

Evo, that's what i've heard through the BP tree. It may have been misinterpreted that the package was the same as what BP were previously offering - hence it was good in that it wasn't worse.... If you know what i mean?

Rab

EVO, whos your OTL mate?. From what I gather thhrough e-mail and phone calls is that Apache have offered to match the terms and conditions that we had under BP. Whether this extends to pensions and shares etc. no ones quite sure yet. At the moment the non contributary pension scheme alone is equivalent to 20% of the basic wage. It would be a major loss to all involved if this was to go. We have also been told that there will be no packages offered to guys who want to finish, (as without the workforce the Forties is worthless). I will know more on Thursday when i get out there.

caz1562

Carl, you are near correct re the 46mbd from the 40's but you must remember the fields were 1st flowing in early 70's making this the 1st 'BIG' North Sea oil find. They've managed to see out the next 30 years and still making money even though the oil rate has dropped. FC has over 200mbd going over from Brae, Buchan & Montrose so still has a value to BP FPS. Now that Unity is swelling with oil its casting a shadow over the rest of that system in terms of market value. However I do feel for the guys out there, just hope the transition contract onto Apache is smooth and they don't loose out on anything.

evojkp

Rab, all appears to be an uneven playing field. I take what you say about terms and conditions, as long as this does not fall under a TUPE agreement for continuous employment.
On MonArb BP employees were to be TUPE'd initially, as has been mentioned they must have people to run the asset, but as it stands, an evergreen payment is being made as well as the chance of further employment. Nice little cushion for guys with long BP service. A backhander so to speak, with a job.
Thats the anomily that was pointed out to me as the 40's 'at present' do not seem to have this offer.

Rab

Whats a TUPE agreement?

caz1562

TUPE agreement is where company X is bought over by company Y. The terms & conditons (i.e. wages etc.) from company X are maintained when company Y take over. However this is only for a pre-determined period. Then once this period expires you then become a sole employee of company Y. At this point your contract terms & conditions can then be changed by company Y to whatever they want.

This is my understanding of what a TUPE agreement means. You lose out on 'golden handshakes' shares, long service awards etc.

[Edited by caz1562 - 1/18/2003 1:49:16 PM]

evojkp

At present I think the European Law states that under TUPE (Transfer under present employment), terms and conditions have to be comparible for two years max. After that they have the power to take the p###.

Rab

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