Page 83 - Sjæklen2011

transport oil, and this meant a new business opportunity for
many shipping companies – including A.P. Møller’s com-
panies. The importance of transporting oil grew for A.P.
Møller in the post-war period, when the group developed
Denmark’s biggest tanker company. Since the oil crisis of
the 1970s, the tanker activities have, however, been over-
taken by the group’s container business, Maersk Line, in
relation to turnover and importance for the group. The trans-
port of crude oil, refined products and gas is also a part of
the group’s shipping activities.
The exploration and production activities in the Danish
North Sea provided the actual breakthrough for the group’s
involvement in the oil and gas sector. The A.P. Møller-
Mærsk Group succeeded in developing Mærsk Olie og Gas
into a major international player upstream within hydro-
carbon exploration and production, with activities in many
countries. The company was granted the concession to con-
duct exploration in Denmark’s subsoil in 1962, and it gradu-
ally built up expertise in exploration and production. From
the early 1990s, Mærsk Olie og Gas embarked on an inter-
national expansion and at the time of writing the company
is one of the world's 20 largest oil companies.
Numerous upstream support functions have developed as
offshoots from the hydrocarbon exploration and production
in Denmark. These include drilling (Maersk Drilling/Con-
tractors), floating production (Maersk FPSO) and supply
services (Maersk Supply Services, Danbor and Maersk Heli-
copters). These activities have been predominantly maritime
and they have thus built further on the group’s maritime ex-
pertise, although not exclusively. Considerable expertise has
also been built up over the years within each field.
The support activities have serviced DUC and the ope-
rator Mærsk Olie og Gas, but they have also found many
external customers. A number of the support functions for
Mærsk Olie og Gas have also been undertaken by exter-
nal suppliers rather than the group’s own units. There has
MÆRSK FRONTIER fra Maersk Supply Service i arbejde ved borerig i Nordsøen. I baggrunden et af Esvagts karakteristiske vagtskibe.
Foto: A.P. Møller-Mærsk.
83