Norway’s engineering and construction company Kvaerner has signed the final contract for delivery of the steel jacket for the drilling platform to be deployed at the Statoil-operated Johan Sverdrup field.
On June 26, 2014 Kvaerner entered into a frame agreement for delivery of steel jacket substructures for Statoil projects. At the same time Letter of Intent was signed for the steel jackets for the Johan Sverdrup riser platform and drilling platform.
Jan Arve Haugan , Kvaerner’s President & CEO said: “ With the two contracts for delivery of steel jackets to Johan Sverdrup in order backlog, Kvaerner Verdal has a solid and predictable foundation as basis for continuous improvement and long-term planning in connection with further development of Kvaerner in Verdal.”
Weighing 22,500 tonnes, the drilling platform jacket will be the second largest of the jackets to be constructed during the first phase of the Johan Sverdrup project. This jacket will be delivered and installed on the Johan Sverdrup field in the spring of 2018.
Kjetel Digre , senior vice president for the Johan Sverdrup development project at Statoil said: “We are well pleased with getting Kværner on board on yet another complex steel jacket delivery for Johan Sverdrup.”
“An important part of the original letter of intent between Statoil and Kværner for delivery of steel jackets implied that the partners were to cooperate on realising further improvements through standardisation and simplification.”
“This contract proves that the cooperation has been successful, and together we have improved competitiveness and maximised value creation from Johan Sverdrup.”
“The Johan Sverdrup project activity will rise considerably in the time ahead as we take new steps in the development. We are cooperating closely with the suppliers in the engineering of the platforms for the project. So far, we have awarded several main contracts and equipment packages at a value of more than NOK 43 billion ($5.3B),” Digre says.
More contracts in Autumn
“More contracts will be awarded this autumn. We have already started on the first jacket for the riser platform at Kværner Verdal. So far, we are on track on the Johan Sverdrup development,” says Digre.
The investment costs in the first phase of the Johan Sverdrup development are estimated at around NOK 117 billion ($14.3B) (2015 value), with expected recoverable resources in the range of 1.4 – 2.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
The first phase of the Johan Sverdrup field development will consist of four installations, including a utility and living quarters platform, a processing platform, a drilling platform and a riser platform, as well as three subsea water injection templates. The platforms will be interlinked by gangways.
Kvaerner Verdal is the contract party, and the project management will be based at the company’s specialised jacket facility in Verdal in Mid-Norway, where fabrication will be executed. Prefabrication will start in the summer of 2016, and assembly will take place from the spring of 2017.
At peak manning, Kvaerner says that around 250 of its employees will be working on the drilling platform jacket. Together with the delivery of the riser platform jacket, this will engage around 500 Kvaerner employees when the two projects are at their most hectic.
Additionally, it is expected that as spin-off effects of the two deliveries work will be created for another 1 500 people in Kvaerner’s sub-suppliers and from regional service providers in private and public sector