OSC/IOSC began its involvement with Shell for its offshore Soroosh/Nowrooz project with discussions as early as the beginning of 1999 when the concept of using the Ports and Shipping Organisation (PSO) facilities was truly in its infancy. Challenged by the prospect of finding a suitable location to support the drilling campaign for Soroosh/Nowrooz (the fields being located in the northern most sector of the Gulf), OSC undertook a physical review of the possible locations that might be able to offer the appropriate facilities including Bushehr (too congested), Kish Island (too far away), Assaluyeh (under developed), Kharg Island (potentially too sensitive and therefore concluded to be too difficult) and Bandar Imam Khomeini (BIK). BIK was selected due to the existing infrastructure and the pragmatic management. OSC/IOSC signed a 10 year agreement with PSO for quayside, outside storage and warehouse/office facilities. One needs to bear in mind that BIK has never supported an oil and gas project previously but the concept of OSC/IOSC adding its logistics expertise to the existing PSO facilities was developed and it was thought to be a very interesting proposed solution to the support base for Soroosh/Nowrooz.

Various discussions and presentations were made to Shell personnel throughout 1999 and these culminated in Shell Iran Offshore Ltd (SIOL) giving the three year contract to IOSC for the Provision of Logistics Base Services in July 2000. The base at BIK is now a fully operational oilfields logistics base and is staffed almost exclusively by Iranians most of whom have received on the job training by OSC. The scope of IOSC's contract includes the typical logistics base services, waste management services, container management services and customs clearance services.

IOSC is operating in BIK to Shell's exacting HS&E requirements and much progress continues to be made in this area. One element of this is the investment being made in BIK for incineration of waste from the rig and the base which should account for a good deal of the waste generated. IOSC manages the waste on a 'cradle to grave' basis.

A fairly unique feature of IOSC's organisation in BIK is that one of the rotational base managers is a Shell employee effectively seconded to IOSC for the contract duration.

Iranian content, being a key issue in the buy-back projects, is very high in the Soroosh/Nowrooz contract due to the facilities and personnel and currently stands at 85% which is particularly impressive.

The drilling portion of the contract finished in August 2003 and thereafter IOSC has handled support for the production phase as an extension to the original contract.