Transco, the gas transportation arm of BG, has already given out about £800m of the "engineering period contracts" to repair and maintain segments of its 273 km network of pipes in the past six weeks. Further awards are expected in the next few weeks.
Over the past three years, Transco has divided its network into 12 local distribution zones. This has allowed contractors to bid for work on much larger chunks of the network than before. It has also meant that contracts awarded are much larger, ranging from £10m to £30m a year for each zone's repair and maintenance.
Contracts have also been awarded for new connections to the network, each worth less than £10m.
Amec is one of the winning suppliers chosen so far, having won a £150m five-year repair and maintenance contract for the north London region of the network.
Our aim is to give managers a greater awareness and get the lowest whole-life cost
Transco spokesperson
Other winners include:
- North-west England and North Wales: DJ Ryan and J Kennedy (repair and maintenance) and Dewsbury Civil Engineering (connections)
- Yorkshire: Kennedy Utility Management (repair and maintenance) and Thomas Bermingham (connections)
- East Anglia: Amec (repair and maintenance) and Dewsbury Civil Engineering (connections)
- East Midlands: Murphy Pipelines (repair and maintenance) and Thomas Bermingham (connections)
Contracts are yet to be awarded for the following zones: Wales, the South-west, South-east, West and South. Contracts come up for Scotland and north England next year.
The current contracts have been awarded under a new style of procurement, piloted last year for the first Scottish contracts. Contractors were required to take on an "integrated manager" from Transco to work full time on the contract team.
