Statoil Awards Njord Upgrade Contract

Statoil, on behalf of Njord partners, has awarded a NKr 5bn ($587mn) contract to Kvaerner to upgrade the Njord A platform in the Norwegian Sea. The engineering procurement and construction (EPC) contract, signed March 17, was made under a framework agreement signed in April 2016.

The EPC contract award is conditional, pending approval of the plan for development and operation (PDO) for Njord from the authorities, which partners plan to submit shortly. The Njord partners, which include Engie, recently made an investment decision March 15 on the 'Njord Future' and Bauge projects, which require upgrading of the platform and the Njord B floating storage. Engie has 20% in Njord and 10% in the Bauge field. 

According to the plan, the Njord A platform will be towed out on the field and ready to resume production at the end of 2020. It stopped producing at the field last summer.

The Njord A platform being towed to the Kvaerner Stord yard in Norway in summer 2016 (Photo credit: Statoil)

Partners in the nearby Bauge oil licence recently decided to tie back their field to Njord, while in 2016 partners in the Pil and Bue oil and gas fields (operated by Germany's VNG) picked subsea development with tie-back to Njord A as a development concept.

The Njord oil and gas field has been on stream since 1997 which was when Kvaerner originally delivered the Njord A platform. Njord licensees are operator Statoil 20%, Engie 40%, DEA 30%, Faroe Petroleum 7.5% and VNG 2.5%. Three months ago DEA reached an agreement to acquire an additional 20% Njord interest from Engie; once approved by Oslo this will mean Engie's stake falls to 20% while DEA's increases to 50%.

Mark Smedley