Analysis  /  Feature film  /  Offshore & subsea
Feature film · Offshore & subsea

Life of Field.

How a subsea development is engineered, installed, operated and finally removed, from spoolbase to recovery, in six minutes.

Key points

Subsea scope largely delivers to plan. The value is won or lost around it: in the front end, the installation fleet, the host and the exit.

  1. 01Front-end definition sets the odds of success.Oil and gas megaprojects with the best front-end definition succeed more than 60% of the time, against 22% on average, on Independent Project Analysis data.1
  2. 02Pipe specification and a tightening fleet limit who can install.Subsea awards fell 20% in 20252 while contractor margins rose.3 Two recent pipelay newbuilds took about three years each, on ZMK’s calculation.4
  3. 03Subsea largely delivers to plan. The host carries the risk.Regulators find subsea scope is largely delivered as predicted.5 On ZMK’s count, 20 of the 27 FPSOs that reached first oil from 2022 to 2025 started late.6
  4. 04The removal bill could arrive early and is only partly secured.UK removal spend hit a record £2.6bn in 2025.7 The US regulator estimates its proposal would drop 89% of the extra security its 2024 rule requires.8
An FPSO at dusk, lit up on a calm sea 6 min
Illustrative film. It shows no specific operator's field or vessel.Figures on screen are sourced in the briefing.
Practitioner's challenge

Twenty-one things in this film are wrong.

We left them in on purpose. Only someone who has worked offshore will catch them all: scale, rigging, safety and continuity. Count them, then check your answers.

Cover of the answer key
Download the answer key
PDF, 26 pages, 4.5 MB. Free, no details needed.

Watch the film first. The key has every detail with its timecode and a still.

The briefing

Where subsea value is won or lost.

Cover of the Life of Field briefing

Fourteen slides for operator executives, boards and investors: the front end, the installation fleet, the host and the exit. Every figure traced to a named, dated source.

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Principal to principal.

If a question in the briefing touches a live project or decision, write to us directly.

[email protected]
Sources for the key points
  1. E. Merrow (Independent Project Analysis), “Walking to Run in Megaproject Execution”, Journal of Petroleum Technology (SPE), 19 Aug 2016. Link
  2. Westwood Global Energy Group, “Demand for subsea equipment holds, but macro headwinds remain”, 21 Jan 2026. Link
  3. Segment margins, year on year: Subsea 7 half-year results, 30 Jul 2026; TechnipFMC second-quarter results, 30 Jul 2026; Saipem first-half results, 28 Jul 2026. Link
  4. Saipem interim reports, 30 Jun 2008 and 30 Jun 2011 (FDS 2); Subsea 7 Annual Report 2017 and release of 12 Nov 2020 (Seven Vega). Durations are ZMK’s calculation from these dates. Link
  5. Oil and Gas Authority, Lessons Learned from UKCS Oil and Gas Projects 2011–2016, 3 Mar 2017, p.14; Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, Project execution on the Norwegian continental shelf, Jan 2020. Link
  6. ZMK Advisory FPSO census, first oil 2022 to 2025, compiled from operator and contractor releases, exchange filings and government documents. Five units with weak baselines excluded. Full table in the briefing, annex A2.
  7. North Sea Transition Authority, UKCS Decommissioning Cost and Performance Update 2026, 13 Aug 2026, p.3. Link
  8. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Risk Management and Financial Assurance for OCS Lease and Grant Obligations, proposed rule, 91 FR 11212, 9 Mar 2026: US$6.2bn of US$7.0bn. A proposal, not yet final. Link

Links accessed 27 Sep 2026. The briefing cites every figure in full.