Norway: Kongsberg Maritime Wins SAS Contract for Newly Upgraded BW Athena FPSO

Kongsberg Maritime has been awarded a contract from BW Offshore to install a new Safety and Automation System (SAS) on board the newly upgraded BW Athena FPSO. The KONGSBERG system will be installed on the vessel, which will operate on the Athena field as a result of a contract between BW Offshore, the world’s second largest FPSO operator and field operators Ithaca Energy and partners.

The contract win follows a similar agreement between Kongsberg Maritime and BW Offshore in 2008, which resulted in a highly successful implementation of the advanced SAS technology on board the FPSO BW Cidade De São Vicente, currently operating for Petrobras on the Tupi field in Brazil.

BW Athena, formerly named BW Carmen, will be ready for operation on the Athena field in the Outer Moray Firth area of the UKCS during late 2011 and will be deployed for a minimum of three years with options up to eight years. In preparation for operation the FPSO vessel has been extensively upgraded with field specific equipment, including a new KONGSBERG Safety and Automation System and K-Pos Dynamic Positioning System.

Petter Fiksdahl, Project Manager, for BW Offshore comments: “During investigations to define the requirements for operation on the Athena field, BW Offshore identified the topside Safety and Automation System on the BW Athena FPSO for replacement. Our decision to award Kongsberg Maritime the contract to replace the existing topside systems on the vessel was based on a complete evaluation related to price, quality and experience“.

David Shand, General Manager of Kongsberg Maritime – Offshore Aberdeen says:“We are delighted that BW Offshore have chosen to involve Kongsberg Maritime in the BW Athena upgrade project. We are confident we can bring unrivalled technology and extensive experience of implementing and supporting safety and automation system technology for floating production vessels to this project. Support will be provided locally from our Aberdeen office, where our close proximity to the customer means we will be able to react quickly to the customer requirements and assist with on-going control system modifications and upgrades. The BW Athena will be supported by a very experienced and competent team who already has significant process automation projects under their belt including the Bluewater Aoka Mizu FPSO, currently operating in the Nexen Ettrick field. We look forward to working closely with BW Offshore, both in the next few months to ensure a timely and succession completion to the Athena project and on any future vessel integration projects that we are privileged to be involved with”.

[mappress]
Source: Kongsberg, August 3, 2011;