Offshore staff
FORNEBU, Norway — Altera Infrastructure has contracted Aker Solutions to upgrade the Petrojarl Knarr FPSO for redeployment for the Rosebank field development, 130 km west of Shetland.
Rosebank is a deepwater oil and gas field, discovered by Chevron in 2004, with estimated recoverable reserves of 300 MMbbl. Since acquiring operatorship in 2019, Equinor has been working on a development solution. Its current partners are Suncor and Ithaca Energy.
Aker Solutions will perform the program under a joint venture with Drydocks World, with the upgrade taking place at the latter’s yard in Dubai, UAE.
The EPC contract scope, due to start before mid-2023 and finish by year-end 2025, covers newbuild, demolition and life extension services to the hull, marine systems and topsides to allow the FPSO to remain on the field for 25 years without the need for drydocking.
Aker Solutions will manage the detail design in Norway, in collaboration with Citec, ABB and OneSubsea Processing.
The Petrojarl Knarr FPSO was transported to Aker Solutions yard at Stord, Norway, last August and will stay there until the planned tow to Dubai during the second half of this year.
Altera Infrastructure was able to confirm the contract after emerging from the chapter 11 process in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.
This followed a restructuring exercise that addressed more than $1 billion of secured and unsecured holding company debt, $400 million of preferred equity and $550 million of secured asset-level bank debt.
In turn, that allowed the company to reach an agreement with Equinor UK for a bareboat charter for the FPSO, the debtors’ most significant asset, which was one of the key drivers in the restructuring. Previously, the vessel operated for Shell on the Knarr Field in the Norwegian Sea.
01.09.2023
