Aibel, a Norwegian service company for the oil and gas industry, has lifted into place section 512 of the Johan Sverdrup drilling platform in its yard in Haugesund, Norway.
Aibel said on Monday that the 208-ton section had been moved out of the paint hall and hoisted into place in the North Sea Hall, where the whole drilling support module (DSM) is being assembled, on Friday.
Bjørn Pedersen , the construction manager for the DSM, said: “We have a tight schedule. That’s why it was important to us to complete the hoist as soon as possible after completion in the paint hall. The operation was planned down to the last detail, and everything went according to plan.”
Hoisting of the 512 section was an important milestone for Aibel. Namely, the hoisting of the section marked the completion of the first deck of the DSM. It is the first of six decks on one of three modules on the Johan Sverdrup drilling platform.
Pedersen said: “Completion of the first deck is an important milestone. First of all, it means that we are on track with regard to the schedule. Now large amounts of pipes and mechanical equipment are to be installed before the next sections are hoisted into place.”
Aibel said that the hoist was also a major test for the North Sea Hall’s new cranes, specifically added as an upgrade for the Johan Sverdrup project. The next large hoist is scheduled for October when the 521 section arrives from the Vistal yard in Poland.
Johan Sverdrup is an oil field located in the North Sea around 155 kilometers west of Karmøy in Rogaland county, offshore Norway.
Statoil is the operator of the field with 40.0267%, and its partners are Lundin Norway with 22.6%, Petoro with 17.36%, Det norske oljeselskap with 11.5733% and Maersk Oil with 8.44% interest.
The construction contract for the Johan Sverdrup drilling platform was awarded to Aibel in February 2015. The 22 500-tonne topsides will consist of three modules, one of which will be built at the yard in Haugesund, one at the Deeline yard in Thailand, and one at Nymo’s yard in Grimstad. The modules will be assembled at Aibel’s yard in Haugesund in the autumn of 2017, before the platform is installed on the field in 2018.
The Johan Sverdrup project will be developed in several phases, and a comprehensive effort has been made to develop the concept for full-field development of Johan Sverdrup. Statoil on Monday said it was able to decrease the full-field investment from a range of NOK 170–220 billion in 2015 to NOK 140–170 billion in 2016.
The trend is visible in other development projects nearing start-up. According to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, the price tag for developing a field on the Norwegian shelf has declined by an average of more than 40 per cent since the autumn of 2014. Apart from Johan Sverdrup, such a trend was seen in the Utgard, Oda, Zidane, Trestakk, Snilehorn, Johan Castberg, and Snorre Expansion projects as well.