Aker Solutions has entered a long-term agreement with Statoil to provide a full range of heavy well intervention and light-drilling services on the Norwegian continental shelf.
The contract period is for eight years with options for three further two-year periods (2+2+2). The contract’s value for the initial eight-year period is approximately USD 1.9 billion. Work will be performed from a new build Category B well intervention rig, which will be owned and operated by Aker Solutions' subsidiary Aker Oilfield Services.
"Aker Oilfield Services was set up five years ago to develop cost-effective solutions for vessel-based intervention services,” said Øyvind Eriksen, executive chairman, Aker Solutions. “In 2009, we took full ownership of the company with the objective of using it as a vehicle to develop an integrated delivery model, which fully capitalizes on Aker Solutions' broad portfolio of oilfield products, systems and services, in order to create new business opportunities. This ability to bundle technology and expertise has proven to be a competitive advantage when bidding for this contract. It will involve deliveries from our oilfield service arm, engineering, drilling technologies, subsea and well intervention services."
The Category B (Cat-B) rig is a semi-submersible unit, designed for year-round well intervention. It will provide a full range of heavy well intervention and light-drilling tasks, including through-tubing rotary drilling, wire line, coil tubing, high pressure pumping, well testing and cementing services as well as ROV operations. It will operate in water depths up to 500 meters.
Well intervention services are carried out in an oil or gas well with the objective of maximizing production and increasing the recovery rate of oil and gas. Well intervention has traditionally been performed from fixed platforms. In more recent years, specially-equipped ships or rigs have been developed to undertake the same type of service on subsea wells where recovery rates have been much lower.
The subsea well intervention system - i.e. the infrastructure between the rig and the seabed - is based on the technology solutions developed for Aker Oilfield Services' deepwater well intervention vessel Skandi Aker. This is, as on Skandi Aker, a riser-based intervention system, consisting of a high-pressure riser and well-control package, which is connected to a subsea tree to secure safe entry into subsea wells.