Five-year gig at two oil & gas fields lands on Aibel’s to-do list in Norwegian waters

Vår Energi, Norway’s independent upstream oil and gas player, has hired Aibel, a compatriot energy services company, to handle a maintenance and modification (M&M) assignment at two fields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS).

With a value estimated at around NOK 1.2 billion ($117.7 million), the five-year maintenance and modification contract award covers deliveries and services related to the Goliat and Gjøa fields. This deal comes with three two-year extension options.

Torger Rød, Vår Energi’s COO, commented: “This contract ensures local deliveries that create activity, ripple effects, and employment in Hammerfest and Florø, where the two fields have their supply and logistics bases.

“In addition to technical deliveries, Aibel will provide engineering support and project management, hence becoming an integrated and important part of our teams at Goliat in the north and at Gjøa in the west.”

Vår Energi, which claims to have been particularly intent on competitiveness throughout the tender process, as increased cost levels and lower productivity on the NCS are perceived to be common industry challenges, has focused on operational efficiency, improvement plans, synergies, local content, and competence in early-phase projects.

Rød added: “A good and close collaboration with suppliers of maintenance and modification services is of great importance to Vår Energi. Through this contract, we will benefit from Aibel AS’ solid competence and experience working on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. By having the same supplier for the Gjøa and Goliat installations, we expect to extract significant synergies on the deliveries.”

Vår Energi sees Goliat in the Barents Sea and Gjøa in the North Sea as two of its core areas, both with significant future resource potential. The first field, discovered in 2000 with production beginning 16 years later, is located 50 kilometers southeast of the Snøhvit field and encompasses eight subsea templates with 32 well slots tied back to the FPSO Goliat.

While the two hydrocarbon discoveries, 7122/6-3 S (Rødhette) in 2021 and 7122/8-1 S (Countach) in 2023, were made in the area north of the Goliat field, more infill and exploration wells are on the firm’s agenda in the coming years.

On the other hand, the Gjøa field, which contains the Vår Energi-operated Gjøa platform, is situated about 80 kilometers southwest of Florø. The Cerisa discovery, which was included in the Gjøa North and Ofelia/Kyrre project team to fast-track production from these discoveries, is expected to help Vår Energi up its production ante.

As the firm is targeting a production of around 400,000 barrels per day by the end of 2025, it is involved in several development projects on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, including the start-up of an FSPO destined to prolong production from the Balder area in the North Sea.

Prior to this, the Norwegian player took a final investment decision (FID) for the Balder Phase VI project to sustain long-term, high-value production through the same FPSO.