Construction yards win prizes

Spanish yard Dragados Offshore and Norway’s Kvaerner Verdal have won the latest construction contracts on the Johan Sverdrup mega-project.

Statoil, operator on the multi-million dollar development, in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, has issued the two firms with engineering, fabrication and construction contracts for steel jackets for the processing platform and the utility and accommodation platform. 

The field, sitting 155km west of Stavanger on the Utsira High in the North Sea, is one of the five biggest oil fields on the Norwegian continental shelf, covering about 200sq km. 

Kvaerner Verdal will construct the process platform jacket, weighing some 17,700-tonne, under a NOK 1 billion contract, installation on the Johan Sverdrup field expected in summer of 2018.

The contract means Kvaerner is now constructing three of the four Johan Sverdrup field first phase development jackets. Kvaerner, which also has a topsides contract on the project lost out on a contract to design and construct the deck of the drilling platform on the development, which went to Norway’s Aibel.  

Dragados Offshore will construct the 7600-tonne utility and accommodation platform at its yard in Cadiz, Spain, with field installation scheduled for the summer 2018. Statoil recently sailed out its massive Mariner platform jacket from the Dragados facility in Spain, with the 22,400-tonne structure installed on the UK North Sea seabed on 31 August.  

Government sanction was only issued for the field in August this year, followed delays around how the field, originally considered two fields, Aldous Major and Avaldsnes, would be divvied up between the various partners. 

Statoil says the cost of the first phase development, consisting a connected four platform complex, will amount to about NOK 117 billion or US$14.3 billion (2015 value) with 1.4-2.4 billion boe expected recoverable resources. An early estimate by Statoil for full development had been $22.3-28.9 billion with daily production put at 550,000-650,000 bbl/d. But, Statoil has been concentrating on cost reduction. 

The Johan Sverdrup partnership’s goal is to recover 70% of resources. At plateau production the field will account for roughly 40% of the total oil production on the Norwegian continental shelf. Start-up is planned for late 2019.

In January, Aker Solutions was awarded a $590 million engineering and procurement management deal, on the riser and processing platform topsides for the Johan Sverdrup field phase one, in addition to hook-up work and gangways for the entire field, until the 2019 scheduled start date. 

In August, Heerema Marine Contractors’ crane vessel Thialf completed the installation of the 280-tonne pre-drilling template, which measures in at 32m-long and10m-high, in the North Sea. It also contains eight well slots to allow production wells to be pre-drilled before the drilling platform is installed in 2018. In addition, construction of the first jacket has started at Kværner Verdal, Statoil said.

The Johan Sverdrup field partners: Statoil 40.0267% (operator), Lundin Norway 22.6%, Petoro 17.36%, Det norske oljeselskap 11.5733% and Maersk Oil 8.44%.

Read more

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