Contracts worth a total of NOK 590 million have recently been awarded by Statoil for its Skinfaks development and Rimfaks expansion project in the North Sea.
Subsea 7 will be laying pipelines to tie the new subsea installations back to the group’s nearby Gullfaks C platform under a contract worth just under NOK 190 million.
Saipem has been given the job of carrying out all subsea connection work, valued at roughly NOK 230 million.
And modifications on Gullfaks C to a value of about NOK 170 million will be performed by Fabricom.
Located in the Tampen area, the two fields covered by these assignments are being tied back to the C platform via existing infrastructure.
The pipelaying job embraces two 10-inch lines, each about 12 kilometres long, and an eight-inch one running for 4.5 kilometres.
They will link the new subsea templates being installed on the two fields to existing templates on Statoil’s Gullfaks satellites.
Due to start next spring, laying work will be performed by Scandi Navica and is scheduled for completion in July 2006.
For its part, Saipem will use the Normand Cutter and Far Sovereign vessels to install a number of structures and carry out 26 subsea connections.
Statoil has already awarded Transocean a drilling job worth some NOK 550 million and FMC Kongsberg Subsea a contract valued at just under NOK 500 million to deliver the subsea hardware.
Total investment in the fields is put at NOK 3.4 billion, with production due to start in November 2006. Recoverable reserves are estimated to be about 70 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Statoil has a 61 per cent interest in the development, where its partners are Petoro with 30 per cent and Norsk Hydro with nine per cent.