Aibel clinches Oseberg FEED. Hoping for EPCI too

Norwegian oil company Statoil has awarded its compatriot oilfield services provider Aibel a contract to conduct a FEED study for the Oseberg Future Development Brownfield Topside project. According to Aibel, this contract gives an opening for the subsequent Engineering Procurement Construction & Installation (EPCI) award.

The project will be managed from Aibel’s new office in Bergen, where up to 29 associates will be involved in the study phase. If Aibel is given the go-ahead to implement the realization phase, the company says the project will amount to a total of 165,000 man-hours and commit 45 associates on average.

Oseberg Future Development Brownfield Topside comprises two main activities. The first activity involves connecting a new unmanned wellhead platform (UWP) to the Oseberg B platform, in the North Sea, offshore Norway.

The wellhead platform will also be linked to Oseberg A, which will supply it with power, control and chemical injection. The other activity concerns modification on the Oseberg Field Centre related to connection of Kappa wells to Oseberg via the existing Vestflanken pipeline.

“Previous modification contracts for Oseberg have given us valuable experience that will be extremely useful in this project. By delivering a good and thorough study, we will prove that we are the best partner for the implementation of the EPCI project as well,” says Aibel’s EVP for Modifications, Jan Ståle Skår.

Work on the FEED study starts immediately, and will continue until October. An eventual EPCI contract (engineering services, procurement, construction and installation) will commence around the turn of the year and continue until the end of 2017.