McDermott Wins EPCI Contract From Saudi Aramco

Saudi Aramco has tapped McDermott International Inc. for the engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) of four jackets and three gas observation platforms offshore Saudi Arabia.

The contract is the third fast-track jacket contract the company has won from Saudi Aramco in the last 18 months, Linh Austin, McDermott’s vice president, Middle East and Caspian, said in a Jan. 4 news release.

The award follows an EPCI contract for 12 jackets in 2015 and another, for which work is currently being carried out, for nine jackets offshore. The latest award, which will be reflected in McDermott’s fourth-quarter 2016 backlog, is expected to be executed through fourth-quarter 2017, the company said.

McDermott said it plans to use its engineering teams in Dubai, UAE; Chennai, India; and Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia with construction taking place at its fabrication facilities in Dubai and Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Vessels from McDermott’s global fleet are scheduled to perform the installation work, according to the release.

Saudi Aramco Selects L&T, EMAS Chiyoda For EPCI Work

A consortium including L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering (LTHE), a subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro, and EMAS Chiyoda Subsea has landed two engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contracts from Saudi Aramco, LTHE said in a news release.

One contract involves the two companies upgrading 17 platforms in various offshore fields in the Arabian Sea offshore Saudi Arabia. The other contract involves supplying and installing four wellhead decks in the Safaniya Field.

LTHE CEO Subramanian Sarma said the consortium is delighted with the new awards.

“It is an opportunity for Aramco to benefit from our flagship facility at Hazira as the center of fabrication of the four decks in one of the contracts,” Sarma said. “It is also an opportunity for our consortium to build in-Kingdom skills and capabilities to deliver the brownfield work in the other project.”

Maersk Lines Up Tyra For Decommissioning

Maersk Oil has decided to pull the plug at the Tyra gas field in the North Sea after failing to find an economically viable solution to fully recover the field’s remaining resources.

The company, which issued a notice to the Danish authorities, said on Dec. 30 that production from the Tyra Field is expected to stop Oct. 1, 2018.

“Despite more than DKK 1 billion [US$140.5 million] spend on reinforcing the Tyra structures over the past 15 years, the facilities cannot safely continue production due to new knowledge on storm wave impact, combined with subsidence of the underground chalk reservoir, which reduces the gap between the platforms and the sea,” the company said in a news release.

In the statement, Maersk Oil COO Martin Rune Pedersen said, “In January 2017 we will have to reallocate resources from Tyra rebuild planning to engineering work for a detailed plan to discontinue the Tyra Field as the Danish hub for gas processing.”

The field has served as the main gas production and processing hub in the Danish North Sea since 1984, he said. More than 90% of Denmark’s gas production is processed through the facilities, the company said.

Maersk Oil is the operator on behalf of the Danish Underground Consortium, a partnership between A.P. Moller—Maersk (31.2%), Shell (36.8%), Nordsøfonden (20%) and Chevron (12%).

Aker BP, Partners Crank Up Ivar Aasen

Within budget and on time, Aker BP has started production at the Ivar Aasen Field, where an estimated 186 MMboe of reserves are said to be located.

The startup comes about four years after the plan for development and operation was submitted to Norwegian authorities for the North Sea field, located in the Utsira High area, the company said in a news release.

“The economic life of Ivar Aasen Field may be 20 years, depending on oil prices and production development,” the company said. “Aker BP utilizes modern technology to operate the field most efficiently with low staffing. Operations will be run from an operations center in Trondheim.”

Daily production at the Norwegian North Sea field, which started operating on Dec. 24, 2016, is 68,000 boe. The field is connected to the Edvard Grieg production platform where final processing and export takes place. Edvard Grieg also will provide lift gas and power for the Ivar Aasen production, according to Wintershall, one of the project partners.

Project partners plan to develop Hanz deposit, which holds about 18 MMboe, in Phase two of the development.

Aker BP is the operator. Partners are Statoil, Bayerngas Norge, Wintershall Norge, VNG Norge, Lundin Norway and OKEA.

FPSO Achieves First Oil In Brazil Presalt’s Lapa Field

MODEC Inc. said Dec. 26 that FPSO Cidade de Caraguatatuba MV27 achieved first oil production on Dec. 19 in the Lapa oil field in the Santos Basin’s presalt region.

Lapa Field is formerly Carioca Field, the company said.

The FPSO unit is leased to Guara BV, a Consortium BM-S-09 affiliate, on a 20-year charter contract. Consortium BM-S-09 is responsible for Lapa’s production development and comprises operator Petrobras and its partners.

The FPSO unit can process 100,000 bbl of oil and 177 million standard cubic feet per day of gas. It can store 1.6 Bbbl of oil. It is working in water depths of 2,126 m (6,975 ft).

MODEC said this FPSO unit is the 11th it has delivered to Brazil’s oil and natural gas sector, and the fifth it has delivered to the presalt region.

The FPSO unit’s newbuild hull was constructed by Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. constructed the FPSO unit’s newbuild hull, and several locations in Asia constructed the topsides process modules and related structures. The FPSO unit was installed, integrated and commissioned in Singapore and Brazil.

Aibel Lands Modification Contract For Statoil’s Snorre A

Aibel was awarded the FEED study for modifications on the Snorre A platform in the Norwegian North Sea in connection with the Snorre expansion project, according to a news release.

Plans are for the field to be further developed with a subsea solution in hopes of increasing recovery, Aibel said. As part of the contract, Aibel said it will conduct about a yearlong FEED study to plan the hookup and the required modifications to the platform deck. Work was scheduled to begin immediately.

The contract also has options for additional study work and the implementation phase, which would include construction of a 600-ton riser hang-off module, the release said.

BP Taps KBR For Global Engineering Services

KBR has been awarded two three-year global agreements by BP International Ltd: one for the provision of conceptual engineering services and another for the provision of pre-FEED and FEED engineering services, KBR said in a news release.

Each agreement has a two-year extension option.

The scope of services for both agreements cover offshore, subsea, onshore drilling, greenfield and brownfield upstream engineering services in Alaska, Angola, Azerbaijan, Gulf of Mexico (GoM), Indonesia, Oman, Trinidad and the U.K. The global agreements are for reimbursable global engineering services provided by KBR and KBR subsidiaries Granherne, GVA Consultants and Energo, the release said.

Recently, KBR has played key roles in several BP projects, including Mad Dog Phase II in the GoM, Glen Lyon FPSO in the U.K. and the Shah Deniz Phase II projects in Azerbaijan.

Offshore