Aibel Wins $706M Deal to Build Unmanned Offshore Platform ‘Of the future’
Oil and gas company Aker BP has awarded Aibel, a Norwegian engineering and construction firm, a contract worth around 7 billion crowns ($706,1 million) to build the Munin offshore platform (formerly Krafla) in the Yggdrasil area, offshore Norway.
The contract comes after Aker BP and its partners submitted eleven plans for the development and operation of offshore fields in Norway on Friday.
Aibel said the contract was an “EPChc” contract, where Aibel is responsible for engineering, procurement, and construction connected with delivering an unmanned process platform, also known as an UPP.
The project will be based on Aibel’s FEED (Front-End Engineering and Design) for Krafla UPP, now Munin, which was awarded in 2021.
“Key priorities for the project have been safety in design, minimal maintenance requirements, and simplification of systems and functions on the platform using high-reliability equipment, automation, and digitalization, applying a so-called “design to operate” philosophy,” Aibel explained.
According to Aibel, Munin will not have a helicopter deck nor living quarters, and it will be the first process platform on the Norwegian continental shelf designed from the start for ordinary operation without a crew.
Aibel said that the platform would have a “relatively lean design, be operated from shore, and be available for maintenance with SOV (Service Operations Vessel).”
Munin will act as a production platform where the gas goes directly for export, while oil and water are directed into a shared pipe to the Hugin A platform (formerly NOA PdQ). Here, oil and water are separated, and the oil is exported by pipes to the Sture onshore terminal.
Project management, procurement and engineering services will mainly be carried out at Aibel’s Oslo office, with peak staffing of around 300 people. Construction will take place at Aibel’s yards in Haugesund and Thailand.
“We are proud and honoured to enter into a partnership with AkerBP,” says Aibel’s President and CEO, Mads Andersen. “With this contract award, we are once again consolidating our position as a leading supplier within critical infrastructure for the oil and gas industry. We really look forward to delivering on the UPP concept, which we have developed together with Equinor, and being among the pioneers of future platform solutions,” says Andersen.
The development of the Yggdrasil area is subject to approval by the Norwegian Parliament.
