Offshore staff
OSLO, Norway – Equinor has awarded Kvaerner additional upgrade work for the Njord Afloating production platform to allow it to receive oil from the Fenja field tieback in the Norwegian Sea.
Estimated value is around NOK500 million ($61 million).
The originally awarded contract, signed in March, involves full upgrades of the hull and topsides at Kvaerner’s yard in Stord to allow the semisubmersible platform to produce oil and gas for several more decades.
In addition to production from the Njord field, the platform will also receive oil and gas from the adjacentBauge and Hyme fields.
VNG Norge and its partners have commissioned two subsea templates for Fenja and six wells which will be tied back toNjord A.
The platform must therefore undergo further modification to receive and process the oil, which will entail additional fabrication and installation work in various parts of the structure.
Kvaerner is due to complete the full scope, including the work for Fenja, during spring 2020.
Later this year, lifting and installation of structures and equipment is due to start atNjord A. The yard is also progressing construction of the Johan Sverdrup utilities/living quarter platform topsides: it is nearly complete, and on track for delivery early next year.
In addition, Kvaerner is working withAker Solutions to prepare the Johan Sverdrup riser platform for the start of production late next year. Work is under way on an additional module to be installed on the same platform in connection with the Sverdrup Phase 2 development.
At the company’s Verdal yard, the last of the three steel jackets for Johan Sverdrup, the process jacket, is close to completion and it should be towed to the field during July.
The structure for Repsol’s Yme project is nearing completion while fabrication has started on Aker BP’s Valhall Flank West platform.
Offshore, Kvaerner is helping Equinor to prepare theAasta Hansteen spar platform for start-up later this year.
Elsewhere, the contractor has started work for the Nord Stream 2 landfall project at a site outside St. Petersburg. InCanada, the focus is on marine operations for Husky’s new White Rose platform offshore Newfoundland.
Kvaerner says the combination of lower field development costs and higher oil prices has led to increased activity in the oil and gas industry, particularly in the front-end market with many studies ongoing, while tendering activities too have been high.
The outlook seems to be for larger developments in theBarents Sea and fewer in the North Sea. However, there remains strong potential for tieback solutions and larger modifications throughout the North Sea, Kvaerner believes.
07/13/2018
