Aker News

Esgian reports shifts in demand in its Week 13 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report overview:ContractsADES has received a Letter of Intent (LOI) from PTTEP Energy Development Company Limited for an 18-month jackup drilling contract in the Gulf of Thailand. Operations are expected to begin in the second half of 2024, with an unspecified jackup.Drilling Activity and DiscoveriesThe Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD) has granted Aker BP a drilling permit for an exploration well in…

The Swedish Maritime Administration has purchased the 18-year-old icebreaker Polar Circle, expanding its fleet of icebreaking ships to help keep the nation's ports and shipping lanes clear during the cold winter months.In December, the Swedish Maritime Administration put out a tender to acquire a secondhand icebreaker, with Polar Circle emerging as the most suitable option. The agency recently ran the Polar Circle through trials in the Gulf of Bothnia before committing to purchase the vessel."We are delighted to welcome Polar Circle to our fleet.

Esgian reports fresh finds confirmed in Guyana, China and Norway in its Week 12 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report Outline:ContractsDolphin Drilling has announced the award of a $154 million drilling contract from India's exploration and production company, Oil India Limited (Oil India), to the 6,000-ft semisub Blackford Dolphin.Malaysian offshore drilling firm Velesto confirmed Friday it had recently secured long-term contract extensions for three of its jackup rigs with Petronas Carigali…

Esgian reports that drilling contracts have been announced this week for operations in Brazil and the Philippines, and new discoveries have been confirmed in the UK and Namibia in its Week 11 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.ContractsCOSL Drilling has emerged as the winner for Petrobras' moored semisubmersible tender with the 4,600-ft Nanhai 8 (also known as Nan Hai Ba Hao).Noble has secured a high-dayrate drillship contract with Prime Energy in the Philippines.Drilling Activity and…

Esgian reports rig-related updates from Dolphin Drilling, Diamond Offshore, and Seadrill in its Week 9 Rig Analytics Market Roundup.Report Outline:ContractsDespite Tullow Oil’s recent announcement that it would take a break from drilling offshore Ghana, Noble Corp. has stated that there has been no contract termination announcement and that its 12,000-ft drillship Noble Venturer is currently still contracted to Tullow into March 2025.Masirah Oil Ltd has signed a rig contract with…

Aker Arctic, a Finnish engineering company specializing in the development of ice-going vessels, on Thursday announced it has appointed Mika Hovilainen as interim managing director and CEO following the departure of longtime CEO Reko-Antti Suojanen.Suojanen, who spent 19 years at Aker Arctic, including 10 as CEO, announced in December he would depart the company to explore new opportunities elsewhere.“I will pass the helm to Mika Hovilainen with good confidence. Mika has been working for a long time at Aker Arctic and has been leading our Ship Design activities…

Aker Arctic’s CEO Reko-Antti Suojanen announced he will leave his position in the company, while he and the Board of Aker Arctic have agreed that he will continue in his position as CEO until of January 31, 2024.Suojanen has benn CEO of Aker Arctic for 10 years, and the Board has commenced the search process to hire his successor. “We have developed and designed worldclass icebreakers and other ice going vessels and reached a position as the leading company in this segment. The company’s financial situation is excellent…

Norwegian oil company Aker BP has restored production at Alvheim field, causing an oil spill during the process of starting up the production vessel located in the central North Sea. The downtime resulted from a malfunction in new equipment installed during maintenance activities in the previous quarter, causing a deferral of approximately one month in the production from the Alvheim area, Aker BP said. The oil spill from the Alvheim production vessel on November 29 occurred in connection with starting up the field following an unplanned production shutdown, where one well was producing.

This week Esgian’s Week 50 Rig Analytics Market Roundup notes developments in the semisub sector including that Shell has decided to exercise its option on Stena Don in the North Sea but not on Deepsea Bollsta in Namibia. Meanwhile, a new contract for the Transocean Barents will see it operate in the Black Sea, and jackup Shelf Drilling Perseverance will move to Vietnam.ContractsShelf Drilling has secured a contract award for the 400ft Shelf Drilling Perseverance jackup rig with PetroVietnam Domestic Exploration Production Operating Company Limited (PVEP POC).

Aker Capital AS has acquired 8,240,000 shares in Solstad Offshore ASA, at an average price of NOK 48.45 per share.Following the transaction, Aker Capital holds 27,089,493 shares in the company, corresponding to an ownership interest of approximately 32.9%.Aker Capital AS is 100% owned by Aker ASA and represented on the board of the company by Frank Ove Reite. Frank Ove Reite also owns 356,509 shares in the company, through Fausken Invest AS.In its Q3 market update, Solstad was positive about demand for offshore services, both from oil and gas and renewables.

Esgian has published its Week 49 Rig Market Roundup highlighting new drilling activity in the North Sea and a new licensing deal in Morocco.Drilling Activity and DiscoveriesSerica Energy is continuing with plans for its four-well drilling campaign in the UK North Sea, scheduled for 2024 and early 2025. The campaign will be carried out using the semisubmersible COSLInnovator. All four wells are production wells. The first well in the campaign will be a sidetrack of an existing well (B1z) on the Bittern field.

Finnish companies have designed about 80 percent of the world’s icebreakers, and about 60 percent of them have been built by Finnish shipyards.Finland is home to a strong and vibrant maritime cluster, with a mix of large, medium and small shipyards, as well as a deep pool of marine engineering expertise and a broad network of vessel equipment suppliers.As one of the world’s northernmost countries, Finland is also home to a fleet of icebreakers that keep imports and exports flowing through its harbors, even during the coldest winter months.

Environmental groups on Tuesday will ask a Norwegian court to block the development of three North Sea oil and gas fields, citing insufficient assessment of global climate impact from future petroleum use.The lawsuit filed by Greenpeace and its partner Nature and Youth concerns the Equinor-operated Breidablikk and Aker BP's Yggdrasil and Tyrving fields, which hold combined reserves of some 875 million barrels of oil equivalent.The two NGOs in 2020 lost a case against Arctic drilling at Norway's top court…

Lifting specialist KenzFigee has signed a contract with Aker Solutions for the supply of an offshore pedestal crane destined for the Norfolk Vanguard West offshore wind farm developed by Vattenfall.The delivery involves an electric hydraulic box boom offshore Ram Luffing 2400 type with a SWL of 20t, designed and manufactured by KenzFigee for installation on the Norfolk Vanguard high-voltage, direct current converter station situated off the coast of Norfolk, UK.The crane is designed and verified in accordance with EN13852-1 and certified to DNVGL-ST-0378 lifting requirements…

Subsea services company DeepOcean and the Norwegian oil and gas company Aker BP have agreed to "pioneer" the use of an unmanned surface vessel (USV) for subsea inspection, maintenance, and repair (IMR) and survey work.The first USV is planned to be ready for offshore operations from 2025, when it will go on an eight-year charter agreement with DeepOcean from specialist provider USV AS."Aker BP and DeepOcean already cooperate under a frame agreement for subsea IMR and survey work, and Aker BP has contributed to the development of the USV.

Floating LNG solutions provider Höegh LNG and the Norwegian oil and gas firm Aker BP have entered a strategic partnership to develop a "fully comprehensive carbon transport and storage offering for industrial CO2 emitters in Northern Europe.""The agreement combines the companies’ respective strengths, expertise, and technologies to establish a strong value chain for CCS on the Norwegian Continental Shelf that includes gathering, transporting and securely injecting CO2 for permanent storage in subsea reservoirs…

New Orleans-based Maritime Partners has reached a deal to acquire AMSC subsidiary American Tanker Holding Company, which owns a fleet of 10 Jones Act tankers.Maritime Partners' newly formed Project Merchant Acquisition arm signed a share purchase agreement with Oslo-listed AMSC to acquire AHTC for an enterprise value of $746.7 million. AMSC will receive $249.3 million in gross cash proceeds from the sale.The transaction is expected to close on or before October 31, 2023, subject to certain closing conditions and AMSC shareholder approval.ATHC…

American Shipping Company (AMSC) has signed a deal with Project Merchant Acquisition LLC, a newly-formed company owned and controlled by a fund managed by Maritime Partners, for the sale of its subsidiary American Tanker Holding Company.Pål Lothe Magnussen, CEO of AMSC, said: “The management team at AMSC is pleased that a Maritime Partners managed fund, a leading Jones Act leasing company, is acquiring our Jones Act business. We believe this is the ideal new owner of this business for the next phase in the lifecycle of these assets.

After a bumper year for floating offshore wind farm tenders, the nascent industry is poised for explosive growth in the coming decade as countries strive to cut their carbon emissions. But it's unlikely to be all plain sailing. Rising costs and supply chain bottlenecks have hit some projects and without investment in infrastructure to launch the vast turbines and tow them to sea, hopes of harnessing the full power of the ocean's winds to hit climate targets could be dashed, industry experts say.

Crown LNG Holdings AS, a provider of LNG liquefaction and regasification terminal technologies for harsh weather locations, has agreed to merge with Catcha Investment Corp, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, that would result in Crown becoming a U.S. publicly listed company. The combined company, named Crown LNG Holdings Limited (“PubCo”), intends to apply to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the new ticker symbol “CGBS”.Crown designs and…

After a slowdown in activity during 2020/2021 due to soft commodity prices, demand for FPSOs is picking up.With exploration hotspots like Namibia’s Orange Basin and the East Mediterranean delivering new finds, the FPSO market outlook is healthy. But shipyard capacity constraints are beginning to weigh on delivery, leading to cost concerns. Furthermore, FPSO demand is competing for yard space with other construction projects.To mitigate delay risk and cost overruns, some E&Ps have reviewed their FPSO procurement strategies.

In the global quest for achieving net zero emissions and slowing down global warming, carbon capture and storage (CCUS) technology has emerged as an important solution. Among the notable projects being developed in the field is the Northern Lights offshore carbon capture and storage project in Norway, a country with long experience with offshore CO2 storage.The transition to a sustainable energy future requires innovative solutions that go beyond simply halting fossil fuel projects.

Rederiaktiebolaget Eckerö, a Finnish shipping company providing passenger and cargo ferry services, has agreed to sell the M/S Birka Stockholm cruise ship to Rederi AB Gotland. The sale price is around 38 million euros.Delivery of the vessel to Rederi AB Gotland is expected to occur in April 2023.The ship sale will cause a write-down amounting to around 12 million euros in Rederiaktiebolaget Eckerö's Annual Report for 2022, which will be published on April 12, 2023. "This write-down deviates from the Q4 quarterly report that was published on February 28, 2023," Rederiaktiebolaget Eckerö explained.Built in 2004 by Aker Finnyards in Rauma, Finland, the Birka Stockholm is 177 meters long, 28 meters wide, and can accommodate 1800.