Securing Multi-Billion Dollar Deep-Water Assets

The Oil and Gas sector operates in some of the most unforgiving environments on Earth. Our client, a leading multinational energy consortium, was preparing to commission a state-of-the-art deep-water drilling platform in the North Sea. The capital expenditure for the physical asset exceeded £1.2 billion, but the true financial exposure lay in the operational and environmental risks.

Operating a deep-water platform involves volatile weather conditions, extreme heavy machinery risks, and the ever-present threat of pollution or well blowouts. The consortium required an ironclad insurance wrapper to satisfy their international investors and regulatory bodies before operations could commence.

The Client's Objective

The client needed a comprehensive, all-encompassing policy capable of covering "All Risks" for physical damage to the rig, extensive business interruption (Loss of Production Income), and massive limits for third-party and environmental liability (including Control of Well and seepage/pollution cleanup costs). The challenge was securing sufficient capacity in the market for such extreme liability limits without making the premium economically unviable.

Our Strategic Solution

Leveraging our specialized Energy & Marine division at Tower Place West, JLT Insurance Group Holdings Limited acted as the lead broker to syndicate the risk. We approached top-tier energy underwriters across the Lloyd's of London and international markets to build a layered tower of coverage. Our engineers and risk advisors worked directly with the client to highlight their advanced blowout preventers and superior safety protocols to the insurers, which directly resulted in highly competitive premium pricing and broader coverage terms.