Aker BP has signed new ‘alliance’ agreements for rigs and wells with Noble Corporation, Odfjell Drilling and Halliburton, as it looks to bring a wave of new projects online in the coming years.
The Norwegian E&P has already worked with the services and drilling firms over the last five years, under two separate alliances covering jack-ups and semi-submersible rigs.
The former comprises Noble (NYSE:NE), Halliburton and Aker BP (OSLO:AKRBP), while the latter involves Odfjell Drilling (OSLO:ODL), Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) and Aker BP.
It comes as the group plans a significant build out of new projects and drilling across Norwegian waters.
The operators said the two consortia had already delivered more than 100 wells, drilled over 450 kilometres, carried out almost 80 completions and 35 plug and abandonment operations during its initial contract.
Both have now signed onto new agreements for a further five-year contract term.
This sees the operator secure commitments for the Noble Integrator and Noble Invincible jack-ups.
On the semi-submersible front, Odfjell’s Deepsea Nordkapp is now contracted to end of 2024 with option to further extend the contract, while the Deepsea Stavanger will join the Aker BP rig fleet in 2025 under a five-year contract.
Underpinning both are five-year frame agreements with Halliburton for well construction and service activities.
Odfjell chief executive Kjetil Gjersdal said the agreement would provide a foundation for “enabling implementation of new technology and execution methods to reduce delivery costs” and help lower the carbon footprint of operations.
$20bn of projects
Aker BP noted that the rigs will be “essential” in delivering its upcoming project portfolio, with some still subject to governmental and license approvals.
In December the group and its partners submitted a record ten plans for development and operation (PDO) to Norwegian authorities, paving the way for more than $20bn in investments by the end of 2027.
The submissions included plans for a string of field developments at the Yggdrasil area (formerly known as NOAKA), Valhall/Fenris, Skarv and Utsira High, and triggered a raft of major supply chain contracts.
“A large part of our drilling and wells activities will be carried out in the alliance model, and we can only win if we succeed together with our alliance partners. In the alliance model we are equal partners when it comes to collaboration and planning of activities, but we have different roles,” said the E&P group’s SVP for drilling and wells, Tommy Sigmundstad.
“The model enables us all to be competitive in a highly volatile and changing environment.
“Together we enter the next alliance period with shared goals to deliver ‘low cost, low carbon’ wells, develop and implement low carbon emission operations, and finally, continue to implement digital and automated technologies.”
Coupled with other efforts to boost efficiency and recovery, the new projects will support Aker BP’s plans to grow from production around 400,000 barrels per day in 2022 to around 525,000 bpd in 2028.
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