Installation of the subsea production facilities on Statoil's Åsgard field in the Norwegian Sea is now in its final lap.
This part of the project will be completed on schedule and within its budget of just over NOK 7 billion, reports operations manager Idar O Grytdal in the Åsgard organisation.
He says that the subsea work has proved to pose less uncertainty in terms of progress and costs than the big floating production units, for instance.
Once the contracts for Åsgard's subsea installations had been placed, largely in the form of framework agreements, much of the uncertainty over costs was eliminated.
Åsgard and the Gullfaks satellites project in the North Sea ordered their subsea production units simultaneously, giving maximum volume discounts from the supplier.
The two projects sought to standardised and coordinate their purchases as much as possible, so that tool packages and other equipment could be completely alike.
That also made it possible to buy less equipment than would otherwise have been normal for projects of this size.
The Åsgard subsea development is one of the largest of its kind in the world, with 52 wells spread over 16 templates tied together by 300 kilometres of flowline.
According to Mr Grytdal, remaining work involves connecting up some flowlines and umbilicals. All the templates and 10-inch flowlines have been installed.
In addition, some 115 kilometres of umbilicals have been laid for power supply, control signals and hydraulics. And about 157 kilometres of three-inch service lines for methanol or glycol are also in place.