SBM Sees Oil Majors Trying to Push Risks to Sub-Contractors gCaptain Total Views: 37 March 4, 2011 AMSTERDAM (Dow Jones)–Major oil companies are increasingly trying to push liabilities of offshore oil projects onto sub-contractors as risk awareness has grown in the wake of the BP PLC (BP) Macondo incident last year, according to oil services group SBM Offshore’s chief executive. “Oil majors have a clear focus on the scrutiny of safety procedures,” said Tony Mace, chief executive of SBM Offshore (SBMO.AE) at a press conference about its 2010 results. “We have to stick firm with what is the risk split between us and the oil company,” said Mace. Last year, a rig exploded at U.K. oil giant BP’s Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 people and unleashing the largest marine oil spill in U.S. history. Apart from increasing scrutiny of the risk oil companies face when carrying out offshore projects, “the incident will highlight the attention to who they do business with,” Mace said, adding that he expects SBM to benefit from this. However, SBM will not compromise on the amount of risk it finds acceptable to win contracts. “If competitors are willing to face more risk, so be it,” he said, adding that the company is “quite” firm on what it finds acceptable. While the Macondo incident raised fears of repercussions for the offshore oil industry, so far prospects improved on the back of a higher oil price, better access to financing and a generally improved economic climate. “We expect around 15 Floating Production, Storage and Offloading projects to come to the market each year for the coming years,” Mace said. Activity is especially expected to be strong in West Africa and Latin America, mainly Brazil, he noted. While oil majors have raised there capital expenditure projects for this year, Mace said timing remains uncertain, in part because of the growing complexity of projects. However, in anticipation of the increasing number of projects coming to market, “We [SBM]