Norwegian energy company Equinor has selected four suppliers to give inspection services on all its offshore installations on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) and onshore plants in Norway.
Under the terms of the agreements, the company will award six-year frame agreements (plus two four-year options) to Aker Solutions, Axess, Oceaneering Asset Integrity and IKM Operations, which will come into force from 1 January, 2020.
The frame agreements, which are expected to be signed soon, are worth more than NOK 3.5bn ($380m). The projects will generate jobs for nearly 300-400 people annually.
Equinor’s chief procurement officer (CPO) Peggy Krantz-Underland said: “The agreements will ensure predictability for both Equinor and the suppliers. They form the basis for a strong long-term collaboration, allowing us to use new technologies, achieve continuous improvement and increase safety and value creation for all parties.”
The primary objective of the inspection services is to maintain all installations in good shape and plan for safe, reliable and efficient operations.
Inspection services will reveal weaknesses in oil and gas installations onshore and offshore
The inspection services will expose weaknesses in oil and gas installations onshore and offshore to avoid serious damages. For the inspection services, numerous technologies are applied such as ultrasound, radiography and drone inspection.
Equinor operations technology senior vice president Kjetil Hove said: “We are already applying advanced ultrasound methods to reduce radiation from the use of radiography. “These are advanced technologies that we expect to be even further developed. It is also exciting to see that drones are to mature from being a niche product to becoming standard deliveries within these services.
“This will benefit our installations, as we will have better methods for inspecting areas at height.”
Recently, Equinor and its partners ExxonMobil, Idemitsu and Neptune have made an oil and gas discovery at the Echino South prospect in production licence 090 (PL 090) near the Fram field in the Norwegian North Sea.
