Swedish fabricator back in business with Brunei quarters contract

Apply Leirvik Emtunga supplied a replacement living quarters for Shell’s B11 field off Malaysia, pictured here undergoing installation.

The modular sections will be shipped to the Far East in two batches next summer. The assembled module should be loaded out and installed offshore between March and June 2012.

ALE is a successor company to Emtunga Offshore, which went bankrupt in late 2008. It was bought by Leirvik Module Technology of Norway, which subsequently became part of the Apply group.

“We see the contract as a renewed sign of confidence in the Emtunga modular concept as it is being carried forward under the ownership of Apply Leirvik,” Edström said. “This living quarter will be the fifth delivery from Emtunga to the region since 2001.”

ALE out-bid several major yards in Asia to win this order. The company has also signed a five-year frame agreement for the EPC supply of living quarters to the BP-led Azerbaijan International Operating Co. in the Caspian Sea. The first consignment will be a 2,630-sq m (28,309-sq ft) modular living quarters for the Chirag field (Emtunga had previously supplied five others to this project).

Fabrication is due to start this month, and the sections will be shipped from Sweden in August 2011 for assembly in Azerbaijan, followed by a single-lift load-out in 2012.

Last year the offshore accommodation market was subdued, but there had been a pick-up this year until the Macondo blow-out in the Gulf of Mexico. Since then, various new projects have been placed on hold while operators review the repercussions of the incident, Edström said. Apply Leirvik Emtunga has several bids in the pipeline where decisions are pending.

For more information contact Christofer Edström, Apply Leirvik Emtunga. Tel +46 733 35 15 01, fax +46 +46 512 103 58.[email protected], www.emtunga.com.