Teekay seeks to rule the seas

When your company transports one-tenth of all seaborne oil, the goal of capturing a greater share in the sector is an exciting challenge.

"Today, we ship over 10 percent of the world's seaborne oil," said Teekay Corporation President and CEO Bjorn Moller. "But that means there's 90 percent that we don't ship."

The Vancouver-based company's ultimate goal is to be the leading provider of marine services to the oil and gas industry.

And naturally, growing their business with China is part of the plan.

Because Teekay has traditionally operated medium-sized crude oil tankers, it has not been serving China to the same extent as companies that operate larger vessels. But that is going to change.

"As the Canada-China business relationship in the energy sector expands, we want to get our share. The global energy markets are very international. Teekay is a global company that could boost Canada-China economic cooperation," he said.

"So, we will serve the Canada-China trade as best we can and we will follow the Chinese market from many other vantage points," said Moller.

One of its strategies to increase business with China involves becoming a customer of the country.

Teekay has ordered four Suezmax tankers from Bohai Shipbuilding Heavy Industries Co Ltd, due for delivery in 2008.

Consistent evolution

Ten years ago, the only activity Teekay was involved in was the operation of medium-sized crude oil tankers in the Indo-Pacific Basin.

Today, it has built a successful platform in the shipping industry through its core conventional oil shipping business and through its expansion into Floating Production, Storage and Offloading units (FPSOs), Floating Storage and Offtake units (FSOs), Shuttle Tankers, lightering services, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) transportation.

Teekay also offers a number of services such as marine consulting, offshore engineering, project management, logistics, freight trading and more.

"We have built what we call the Teekay Marine Midstream Platform, which is a broad base of marine services for the oil and gas industry." he said.

"We follow our customers all the way from their upstream oil and gas production to their downstream refining, marketing and ultimately their distribution," said Moller.

The company maintains its level of quality service via a network of over 6,300 employees, maintaining offices in 17 countries and a fleet of over 180 vessels.

Acquiring strength

One of the drivers behind the company's growth over the past decade has been a strategy of acquisitions and organic growth.

"We've always either extended our business from a position of existing strength into something adjacent or if we felt that the new business opportunity was too big a step out for us compared to what our experience was, yet still strategically important for us, we would go out and acquire a new platform," said Moller.

Earlier this year, Teekay acquired 50 percent of tanker operator OMI together with TORM, a leading carrier of refined oil products.

The assets were split, which allowed Teekay to acquire OMI's crude oil carriers and some of its product tankers.

According to Moller, Teekay has traditionally been one of the leading consolidators in the shipping industry and the company will continue its quest to be a leader in this regard.

This approach is helping Teekay expand its service offering, further allowing the company to build relationships with and serve key markets such as China.

www.teekay.com

(China Daily 11/13/2007 page27)