Aker Solutions emerged as the first big winner this week of contracts tied to development of Statoil’s long-delayed oil field Johan Castberg off the coast of Northern Norway. Aker Solutions, controlled by industrialist Kjell Inge Røkke, will deliver the subsea system to the field and design the top deck of the floating production and storage vessel that will be attached to it.
Statoil and Aker Solutions signed deals worth around NOK 4 billion (nearly USD 500 million) on Tuesday, just after Statoil had announced plans to finally develop Castberg at much lower cost than initially projected.
Aker Solutions’ CEO Luis Araujo stressed that the contracts were good news for the company, even though costs and prices have been slashed. He said it was “a great day for Norwegian industry” because of all the work that development of the field will generate.
Environmentalists are not happy at all about the prospect of more oil and gas activity in the sensitive Arctic area when the Castberg field is located. The field is expected to yield as much as 650 million barrels of oil and be producing in 2022.
newsinenglish.no staff
