Aibel delivers first module for Sverdrup drilling platform

Oil services company Aibel has completed and delivered the main support frame for the Johan Sverdrup drilling platform in its yard in Thailand. 

This is the company’s largest individual delivery to date, Aibel said on Tuesday.

The Johan Sverdrup drilling platform will consist of three modules, which are being built simultaneously at three different yards. The two largest modules are being built at Aibel’s own yards in Haugesund and Thailand, while the smallest module is built by Aibel’s collaboration partner Nymo in Grimstad.

Weighing in at 10,800 tons and the size of a football field, the main support frame for the Johan Sverdrup drilling platform, also called the MSF module, is the largest module ever built on Thai soil. It is also the largest individual assignment Aibel’s yard in Laem Chabang has ever delivered.

The construction work in Thailand started in December 2015, about 10 months after Statoil awarded Aibel the contract for the Johan Sverdrup drilling platform.

According to Aibel, the project is delivered to the agreed quality and time – an achievement that was celebrated with a sail away party for employees, suppliers and other guests at the yard last week.

The guests were also given a tour of the MSF module, which is now ready for transportation to Norway.

When it comes to the project’s progress, the Johan Sverdrup field just got its first part that is visible above the sea, which is the jacket for the Johan Sverdrup riser platform. The jacket weighs 26,000 tonnes and is the largest on the Norwegian continental shelf.

Also this week, Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg got a tour of Aibel’s yard in Haugesund, where a drilling platform for the Johan Sverdrup offshore project is being built.