Norway: Gudrun Platform Is in Place

A mere 25 hours after the deck for the Gudrun platform left Aibel’s shipyard in Haugesund, the deck had been lifted into place on the steel undercarriage in the North Sea.

“The operation has been safe and efficient with favourable sea conditions,” says Øyvind Haugsdal, transport and installation manager for the Gudrun project.

He has been planning this lifting operation for the last three and a half years:

“It was an incredible feeling to watch it all go as planned,” he says.

The platform deck was positioned on the undercarriage at 17:43 on Thursday. The lifting operation marks one of the most important milestones in the project.

Gudrun reached its full height of 232.5 metres when the flare tower was lifted into place on Friday morning.

The platform deck and undercarriage will now be connected and the platform will be prepared for production.

On time – under budget

“The most significant milestone in the project is the start of production in the first quarter of next year. We will achieve that too,” says Øystein Michelsen, executive vice president for Development & Production Norway in Statoil.

The field development is on track to cost around NOK 2 billion less than the original investment framework of NOK 21 billion. There are several reasons for this:

“We were given good prices when we awarded the contracts in 2010, in a market characterised by the financial crisis,” says Margaret Øvrum, executive vice president for Technology, Projects and Drilling in Statoil.

This was a win-win situation. The Gudrun license received favourable pricing and the suppliers received crucial contracts.

“Just as important were the strict change controls during the project and strong commitment across the entire Gudrun organisation in order to meet this savings target. All the different disciplines have contributed,” Øvrum says.

The decking contract (engineering work, construction and procurement) was awarded to Aibel.

The engineering work was carried out in Norway and Singapore. Two of the deck modules were constructed at Aibel’s shipyard in Thailand and one at the shipyard in Haugesund, with supplies from Poland.

The deck was also connected in Haugesund. The helicopter deck came from China and the living quarters were supplied by Apply Leirvik.

The steel undercarriage, which has already been ready at sea for nearly two years, was supplied by Kværner Verdal. Transport and installation were performed by the Italian company Saipem.

[mappress]
Statoil, July 19, 2013