Kvaerner Awarded Contract for Valhall Flank West
Monday 18 December 2017
Today, Aker BP has awarded Kvaerner a contract for delivery of the
topside and steel jacket substructure for Valhall Flank West. This is
the first project in the Wellhead Platform Alliance, which was
established in the spring of 2017 between Aker BP, Kvaerner, ABB and
Aker Solutions.
In April 2017 Kvaerner signed a frame agreement with Aker BP, and later an alliance agreement was signed for construction and hook-up of fixed offshore platforms, including topsides and steel jacket substructures. Since then Kvaerner has, together with the alliance partners, worked out and presented several improvements for reduced costs and increased productivity, which will be implemented in the project execution.
The new alliance
model initiated by Aker BP, enables very efficient cooperation between
the participating companies. The Valhall Flank West project will be
executed by the alliance, and Kvaerner’s scope includes procurement,
fabrication, sea-fastening and load-out, as well as offshore hook-up and
commissioning assistance. The fabrication management will be based at
Kvaerner’s yard in Verdal, where prefabrication and assembly will start
from May 2018.
The steel substructure and the topside
shall be ready for delivery and sail-away from Kvaerner’s facilities in
May 2019, and hook-up and commissioning on the field is scheduled for
August 2019. An average of 450 people will work on the project at
Kvaerner’s yard in Verdal. The activity will be at its highest in the
autumn of 2018, when around 650 employees will be working on the
project.
- This is an important milestone for the
alliance and the development of Valhall Flank West. At the same time
this contract is an important breakthrough in Kvaerner’s strategy to
become a leading supplier of small, cost effective platforms. For the
past years we have invested in developing our own products and expertise
for this type of smaller projects. Several oil companies are
considering developments like this over the next years, and the interest
in the product that we have developed, is positive, says Sturla Magnus,
EVP in Kvaerner responsible for Structural Solutions and the yard in
Verdal.