On Thursday, Aker Solutions announced a milestone in the so-called Njord Future project for Equinor: The towing of the Njord A platform was underway from the shipyard at Stord and out to the shelf.
Njord Future is a comprehensive upgrade project for the field that came into production in the late 90s and has now been extended for another 20 years.
While Aibel in Haugesund received the contract to upgrade the storage vessel Njord B, Kværner and Aker Solutions received a contract in 2017 for the upgrade of the platform Njord A.
The project is a milestone as, according to Aker Solutions, this is the first time a platform has been towed ashore for upgrades in this way.
The Njord A chassis was once delivered from Kvaerner’s shipyard in Verdal, while the platform deck was delivered from their yard in Stord in 1997, where the refurbishment is now complete.
Aker Solutions and Kvaerner were again merged into the current Aker Solutions in 2020.
Njord Future has become far more expensive and more complex than planned. According to budget documents from the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, the project should actually have a total price tag of 16.4 billion, while the estimate has now increased to 29.5 billion (all in 2021 kroner).
The increase has also led to the original contract sum for Kvaerner and Aker Solutions of NOK 5 billion being much larger.
In addition to an increased price tag, the time frame has also cracked. Actually, Njord A should have been completed in the spring of 2020, but it was March 2022.
The reason is that the upgrade was far more extensive than had been planned.
The platform has in recent weeks been in Klosterfjorden for conducting various sea trials, Aker Solutions states. According to the plan, Equinor will resume production on Njord A in the fourth quarter of 2022.
– A refurbishment project is never easy, not least when it is of this size and complexity and in addition must be carried out in the middle of a pandemic with a shortage of labor and a rigid infection control regime, says Executive Vice President Sturla Magnus with responsibility for Topsides & Facilities in Aker Solutions.
– That is why I am proud that we have now reached this important milestone. However, I am most proud that we have completed the large amount of work at Stord without a single serious injury to either people or material, he continues.
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