Aker will carry out engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) for the subsea compression module, the fifth such module it has delivered to the Equinor-operated gas project.
The new module will be a copy of the previously awarded fourth module and will be partly built via re-use of existing equipment, the company said.
It will be installed at the actively producing field with “limited” need for production interruption.
Engineering will be carried out mainly at Aker’s offices in Fornebu, Norway, and the fabrication work will be done at the group’s yard in Egersund, Norway.
Work will begin immediately, and the module is planned to be ready for delivery in August 2024.
Aker did not specify the value of the contract, though said it was designated “sizable” and in the region of £17-80 million (NOK 200-700m).
The Åsgard field is located in the Norwegian Sea, around 125 miles offshore Norway, in water depths of around 240-310 meters. Gas from the field is piped via Kårstø to continental Europe, with around 11 billion cubic metres of gas exported from the field annually.
At its start up in 2015, Åsgard was the world’s first subsea gas compression facility, with Aker having provided and installed the original compression module. The two-train system has been running successfully for more than six years, the engineering group said, with uptime of “close to 100%”.
Under a new field development project, Equinor intends to increase recovery from the Mikkel and Midgard structures by around 282 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe).
As part of this work, Aker says the existing compression modules are being refurbished and upgraded to accommodate a higher compression ratio for the system.
Aker CEO Kjetel Digre said: “This award continues to demonstrate the value of our leading subsea gas compression technology and is closely aligned with our strategy to deliver solutions that help the industry drive towards more sustainable energy production, with lower environmental footprint versus traditional solutions.”
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