The Kårstø contract is a breakthrough for Aker Stord where land-based process facilities are concerned. The company already has almost 30 years' experience in the construction of fixed and floating offshore process facilities in the form of production platforms.
Aker Stord will assemble at its own yard a series of pipe-racks and equipment units for delivery to the Kårstø facility. These units will weigh between 35 and 450 tonnes. For the company to deliver pipe-racks and equipment units to Kårstø is an important development previously the owners of Norwegian land-based plants have for the most part purchased these products from foreign suppliers.
"Aker Stord has been awarded the contract against strong competition from Norwegian and foreign suppliers," says Statoil's project manager Knut Magne Vågen.
"It is gratifying that the Norwegian supply industry has shown itself to be competitive and that Aker Stord submitted the best overall bid."
"The fact that Aker Stord has now demonstrated its competitiveness in the onshore market is strategically important, and very satisfying for us," says Aker Stord's president Stian Vemmestad.
"This is something all the employees have contributed to, for example through cost reductions and greater efficiency."
The company starts mobilisation at Kårstø in September and installation work there will begin in January 2004.
Known as KEP (Kårstø Expansion Project) 2005, this stage of development at Kårstø has a total cost framework of NOK 5.74 billion. It will enable the plant to receive and process rich gas from Statoil's Kristin field in the Norwegian Sea when production begins on 1 October 2005. The construction of a semi-submersible gas production platform for Kristin is well under way at Aker Stord. The platform will be ready for tow-out at the end of March 2005.
The Kårstø facility is the largest of its kind in Europe and the third largest in the world.
For further information please contact:
Torbjørn Andersen, Vice President, Group Communications
Tel: +47 2294 5390, Mobile: +47 928 85 542
Tore Langballe
Investor Relations,
Tel: +47 6751 3106, Mobile: +47 907 77 841