Renewing special vessels

Four contracts worth some NOK 7-8 billion, including options, for subsea installation services on the Norwegian continental shelf are being awarded by Statoil to three contractors.

Replacing 12 earlier agreements, these assignments represent a renewal of the fleet of special ships available to the group for such work.

The contracts cover light well intervention, inspection, maintenance and repair, pipeline intervention and emergency repair, and diving.

“This simplifies our contract portfolio for subsea services on the NCS,” says Terje Overvik, executive vice president for Exploration & Production Norway.

“The new agreements provide economies of scale and better follow-up of the individual contractor.

“Cost-effective use of light well intervention will yield major savings, making it an important tool for reaching our production and improved recovery targets on subsea fields.”

Island Offshore Management has won a contract worth just over NOK 1.5 billion, including options, for delivering light well intervention services.

Due to come into force on 1 April 2006, this agreement relates to annual campaigns of at least 150 days each over a six-year period.

The Island Frontier will be used in 2006-07, with the Island Wellserver newbuilding due to take over the service from 1 April 2008.

A five-year contract worth NOK 1.6 billion, including options, has gone to DeepOcean for inspection, maintenance and repair services. It comes into force on 1 January 2007.

DeepOcean will use a vessel specially built for the Statoil contract, backed up by the Edda Fonn.

Technip Offshore Norge has received a letter of intent for two contracts, including a five-year assignment covering diving, pipeline repair, emergency response and modification services.

Due to come into force on 1 January 2007, this job has an estimated value of NOK 4 billion, including options. The total amount depends on Statoil’s requirements.

Technip will also provide maintenance services and preparation of pipeline repair equipment under a five-year contract worth an estimated NOK 400 million, including options. This also comes into force at the beginning of 2007.

All the contracts include options for three one-year extensions.

Statoil is the world’s second-largest operator of subsea wells as well as being a technical service provider for Gassco.

The latter is the state-owned operator company for Norway’s gas transport network, which embraces roughly 6,600 kilometres of submarine pipelines.