OSLO: Norwegian engineering firm Aibel has won a contract worth 8 billion crowns ($1.05 billion) from Statoil to build a drilling platform for the Johan Sverdrup field, one of the biggest deals for the giant North Sea field.
Aibel, a subsidiary of Swedish private equity firm Ratos , plans to deliver and install the platform in 2018, a year before Europe’s costliest offshore energy project starts running.
The $29 billion oil field is expected to produce some of the world’s cheapest offshore oil that will be profitable even after the recent price crash when it starts running in 2019.
The contract win, coming under the 10 billion crowns Statoil had earlier said it had received for the drilling deck shows that Nordic oil may be regaining their competitiveness, having lost out to Asian rivals.Statoil has warned Nordic oil service firms that they needed to lower their costs if they wanted win North Sea contracts.
Targeted efforts have been made to reduce costs and ensure a cost-efficient delivery and execution,” Statoil said. “We are therefore pleased to see that Norwegian suppliers have regained their competitiveness.”
