Statoil Awards Aker Maritime With Two Contracts

Statoil has awarded Aker Maritime two large contracts for maintenance and modification work on its fields in the Tampen area of the North Sea and the Halten Bank/Nordland area of the Norwegian Sea. Including options, the contracts run for up to 11 years, and have a combined value of around $1 billion. The contracts consist of frame agreements for the maintenance and modification work to be carried out on the installations operated by Statoil in both the Tampen area and the Halten Bank/Nordland area. The Tampen area includes the Statfjord A, B and C platforms and the Gullfaks A, B and C platforms. The options cover work on the Snorre TLP, Snorre B and Visund platforms when Statoil takes over as operator of these fields. The Halten Bank/Nordland area covers the platforms on the Åsgard , Heidrun and Norne fields. Aker Maritime's subsidiaries are to merge with Kværner's oil and gas companies in March, but long before the merger was agreed, both Kværner and Aker Maritime submitted competing bids for this work, which were separately evaluated. After the merger has been implemented, the work will be carried out with the support of large parts of the new joint organisation. The award therefore gives the new Aker Kværner AS a very important economic basis for the further development of the company's operations.

The contract party for the work in the Tampen area is the Aker Maritime subsidiary Aker Offshore Partner. The contract will employ around 600 people each year of the contract period, mainly from the new Aker Kværner companies in Stavanger and Bergen. The assignment has a total value of $784 million. The contract for the Halten Bank/Nordland area has been awarded to the Aker Reinertsen joint venture, the partners in which are Aker Maritime and Reinertsen AS. The contract will employ around 250 people each year of the contract period, mainly Aker Maritime and Reinertsen employees in mid Norway including the Kristiansund area. The assignment has a total value of around $285 million. The joint venture will also call on subcontractors, especially from this region.