Aker Solutions firms up decommissioning award in Norway

Norwegian oilfield services provider Aker Solutions has formally signed a sizeable contract award with Heerema Marine Contractors in Norway.

The contract is for the decommissioning of Equinor’s Heimdal and Veslefrikk and it follows a letter of intent from March 2021. Aker Solutions defines a sizeable contract as being between NOK 200 million and NOK 700 million or between $22.5 million and $78.9 million.

Aker Solutions’ scope of work includes reception, dismantling, and recycling of three offshore installations from the Heimdal and Veslefrikk fields. The total weight of these installations is around 68,000 metric tons and the objective is to recycle about 98 per cent of the steel and materials.

The award will be booked as order intake in the fourth quarter of 2021 in the Renewables and Field Development segment.

As previously reported, the Heimdal and Veslefrikk platforms will be recycled at Aker Solutions’ decommissioning facilities at Eldøyane in Stord, Norway. Early-phase engineering will begin in 2022 and the structures are currently anticipated to arrive at Stord between 2024 and 2026, with project completion in 2027.

Heimdal is an Equinor-operated gas and condensate field in the Northern part of the North Sea, which has been in operation since 1985. The plan is to decommission the field, including removing, dismantling, and recycling the main platform topsides and jacket.

Veslefrikk is also operated by Equinor. It is an oil field in the Northern parts of the North Sea which has been in operation since 1989. On the Veslefrikk field, Aker Solutions’ scope is to dismantle and recycle the wellhead platform Veslefrikk A as well as a subsea pre-drilling template.

Over the last six months, Aker Solutions has been working with AF Gruppen to merge the two companies’ existing offshore decommissioning operations into a 50/50 owned company with the goal of creating a global player for environmentally friendly recycling of offshore assets.

The plan was approved by the Norwegian Competition Authority in September. However, earlier in December, Aker Solutions and AF Gruppen decided to terminate the process.