Kvaerner readies Valhall Flank West jacket for North Sea

Norwegian engineering and construction services provider Kvaerner has completed building a jacket for the Aker BP-operated Valhall Flank West project located offshore Norway.

Kvaerner announced the completion of the steel jacket for the Valhall Flank West project on Wednesday and said it was ready for transport to the Valhall oil field located in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.

Valhall Flank West will be developed from a new Normally Unmanned Installation (NUI), tied back to the Valhall field center for processing and export.

The jacket delivery is the first of two main deliveries for the development of the new wellhead platform. Namely, Kvaerner was in December 2017 hired for delivery of the topside and steel jacket substructure for Valhall Flank West project development. The value of the contract was close to NOK one billion.

This contract award was the first project in the Wellhead Platform Alliance, which was established in the spring of 2017 between Aker BP, Kvaerner, ABB, and Aker Solutions.

The alliance partners on Wednesday marked the milestone of the jacket being ready for departure with a traditional christening ceremony. During the next few days, the jacket will be moved from shore to the barge where it will be docked for transport to the field.

According to Kvaerner, the contract for the delivery of this platform has been organized as a completely new type of alliance where the client, Aker BP, and the main suppliers – Kvaerner, Aker Solutions, and ABB – have worked together thus reducing the delivery time and achieving better cost-control compared to when the client and the suppliers have separate roles and responsibilities.

Kvaerner noted that other oil companies are now also discussing the use of the new platform solution and the implementation model for their new projects.

Aker BP’s project manager for Valhall Flanke West development, Michael J Bible, said: “The construction of the new wellhead platform is bound to become one of the most cost-effective ones ever made on the Norwegian shelf.”

Kvaerner also said that the 2,250 tonnes heavy platform will be ready for delivery from the Verdal yard in mid-June, and hook-up and completion on the field is planned for August 2019. Valhall Flanke Vest is the second wellhead platform built and delivered from Kvaerner’s shipyard in Verdal.

Offshore Energy Today Staff

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