HB Rentals has mobilised a 20ft x 8ft engineering cabin, fitted as a chemistry laboratory, at short notice from its manufacturing and rental base in Aberdeen to the Ensco 105 where it is currently working for British Gas offshore Tunisia.

The cabin, which is A60 fire rated to SOLAS / IMO standards and suitable for installation in a Zone 1 hazardous area offshore, will be used by several customers in-country and is scheduled to move to the Pride rig Sea Explorer in the Miskar Field within the next few weeks.

It will be utilised by SLB Oilphase for chemical analysis work during drilling operations and features some of the industry’s most advanced equipment and software including an integrated safety shutdown system which monitors and controls onboard operating systems, along with smoke, fire and gas detection and a pressurisation system which maintains a safe and clean working environment for personnel.

The contract is worth £30,000 to HB Rentals and follows deals with Schlumberger in Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico and Western Australia earlier in 2007.

HB Rentals’ business development manager for Europe, Mark Slater, said: “North and West Africa have become target growth areas for us, with the full range of our units being deployed for several operators and contractors in the region.

“This growth has been assisted with the appointment of Top Oilfield Services in 2005 as our country representative, a well respected and established energy services company based in Tunisia.   

“We have a long-established relationship with Schlumberger, covering the majority of the world’s major oil and gas producing regions and we are pleased to be able to deliver for them again, this time in a territory where we have not previously worked together.”

HB Rentals, a Superior Energy Services Company, is the world’s largest supplier of temporary on and offshore accommodation modules, operating from three major global hubs in Broussard, Louisiana, US; Aberdeen, Scotland and Singapore.

The global specialist includes the European, American, South East Asian and Australasian operations of the former Duffy and McGovern Accommodation Services, which it acquired in January 2007.