Statoil says it has been forced to shut its Njord platform until next year after it emerged parts of the deck were too heavy for the beams holding it up.
The platform, which originally shut down in July for maintenance, was due to reopen earlier this month, but yesterday North Sea operator Faroe revealed it had been held up until next year.
Now the Norwegian major, which operates the platform, has confirmed that the rig needs to be reinforced before it can be reopened again.
“Planning of the task has begun,” said Njord production director Arve Rennemo.
“At this stage it is difficult to estimate the extent of the reinforcements needed, but it already seems clear that we will have to allow for this work to take until the summer of 2014.”
Although no new damage has occurred on the platform since repair work earlier this summer, the company said new structural analysis had shown some of the deck structures were too heavily loaded and need to be reinforced.
The platform has been working on the 333million barrel Njord field since 1997, and sits around 130km northwest of Kristiansund.
“There must never be any doubt that it is safe to work on Statoil’s installations,” said Rennemo.
“To be on the safe side, we have therefore decided to postpone start-up until the necessary reinforcements have been completed.”
Yesterday Faroe revised down its production estimates significantly after news of the extended shutdown emerged.