Aker Wins Zohr Umbilicals Order
Norwegian contractor Aker Solutions has won an order worth over $120mn (over Nkr 1bn) to deliver its longest-ever umbilicals system at the Zohr offshore gas field offshore Egypt.
The order – from Petrobel, a joint venture of Eni and state-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) – is for the delivery of 180 km of steel tube umbilicals that will connect the Zohr subsea development to an offshore control platform. Manufacturing will be done at Moss in Norway.
The umbilicals system will be delivered by mid-April 2017. Umbilicals systems are cabling or pipes that supply the necessary control, energy (electric or hydraulic) and chemicals to subsea installations and systems.
Umbilicals on a ship ready for installation (Photo credit: Aker Solutions)
Zohr is due to start up in late 2017 initially at 1bn ft3/d, but later rise in phases to 2.8bn ft3/d, says Eni. From discovery of the 30 trillion ft3 Zohr field to its development approval in February 2016 took less than a year. A site for the giant onshore gas processing plant was announced in April.
In February 2016, contractor Subsea7 won a contract worth over $750mn to provide engineering, procurement, installation and pre-commissioning of subsea infrastructure at BP/Dea's Giza, Fayoum and Raven gas fields offshore Egypt, with 80km of umbilicals and 220km of pipelines – with pipelay in two stages, one starting in 2017, the second starting in 2018.
At Zohr, similar contracting work has been done by Egyptian Petrojet and Enppi, and Italy's Saipem.
Mark Smedley