Energy giant Statoil has signed another multimillion-pound deal for a huge UK North Sea development.
It has agreed a £49million contract with fellow Norwegian firm Prosafe for an accommodation block at the Mariner field, a £4.7billion project 80 miles south-east of Shetland.
Prosafe said a new-build accommodation vessel would be used to fulfil the contract, which starts in April 2016 and could last up to three years.
Either the Safe Zephyrus or the Safe Boreas, both being built in Singapore, would provide rooms for up to 450 people working on the Mariner development, it added.
The contract will run for at least eight months but Prosafe’s chief financial officer, Sven Borre Larsen, said it could be extended until 2019 if Statoil sanctions Mariner’s sister field, Bressay. He said: “Statoil is a very large customer for us but mostly on the Norwegian side, so it is great to be working for them in the UK sector.
“Most contracts for accommodation rigs in the North Sea are less than 12 months, so this gives us an extraordinary opportunity for a long-term deal if all the additional options are taken.”
The Prosafe deal is the latest in a string of contracts signed by Statoil for work on Mariner in recent months.
Since the start of the year the operator has signed agreements worth a combined £750million-plus on Mariner, which is thought to hold up to 400million barrels of oil. Contractors now include Subsea 7, Odfjell Drilling and Noble.
It has also contracted Dragados Offshore, of Spain, to build the jacket and Daewoo Shipbuilding, of South Korea, to provide the topside.
Together, the production, drilling and accommodation platform is worth about £1.2billion.
Statoil aims to produce first oil at Mariner in 2017, while it expects to sanction Bressay before the end of this year. If both projects proceed, the operator plans to employ up to 1,000 people out of Aberdeen.
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