Aquaterra hired for well construction ops on Johan Sverdrup

Aquaterra Energy, a provider of offshore engineering solutions, has been awarded a contract by Equinor to deliver early well construction operations for the next sixteen wells of the Johan Sverdrup field development off Norway. 

The award follows Aquaterra Energy’s Phase I Tie-Back project for the engineering of nine complete strings of centralizers and tieback engineering services, which were delivered in 3Q 2018.

Aquaterra said on Thursday that, under the new contract, the company will supply its Well Start solution to engineer conductor guide, cellar deck and internal centralizers for the field to ensure conductor performance for the 50-year field life. The project, set to start in 4Q, will also include hang off tools for the conductor.

According to the company, Well Start is a single source solution that manages the complete set of early well construction activities including third-party interfaces, engineering and equipment.

Christian Berven, Norway Business Development Director at Aquaterra Energy, said: “After successfully completing the first stage of the project, we can use our learnings and technical expertise to optimize the new wells. Equinor has already reduced the total estimated investment by 6 billion NOK since February of this year. Our goal is to keep costs low by continuing to streamline their early well construction operations to reduce time to first oil.”

Johan Sverdrup is one of the largest offshore oil fields on the Norwegian continental shelf, with estimated reserves of up to 3.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent. The project includes the next 16 wells of the field’s development, including measures to facilitate power from shore to the Utsira High. Production start-up is planned for 4Q 2022.

Aquaterra Energy will undertake the work from Norwich and Stavanger and is set to deliver the project in 1Q 2019.