Wood Wins Work at Equinor Field

UK-based Wood has been enlisted for brownfield modification services at Equinor’s Martin Linge oil and gas project on the Norwegian shelf.

The award comes under an existing framework deal agreed in 2016, whereby Wood serves as the main contractor for maintenance, repair and modifications at the field, the company said in a press release on September 18. Its value was not disclosed.

Martin Linge lies waters 115 metres deep, in the northern part of the North Sea.  It is due to come on stream in early 2020, more than three years later than first envisaged. The delay was due in part to a fatal crane crash in the Korean shipyard making the platform. Development costs have also ballooned since first approval, by 59% to krone 47.1bn ($4.8bn).

Equinor replaced France’s Total as Martin Linge's operator last year. The project comprises a fixed integrated wellhead, production and accommodation platform, operated remotely from an onshore control centre, and a floating storage and offloading vessel. It will pump its gas via a new pipeline connected with existing infrastructure to the St Fergus plant in Scotland.

“We look forward to working on the Martin Linge development – one of the most advanced installations on the NCS,” Wood’s senior vice president for Norway, Lars Fredrik Bakke, said in a statement.

Wood landed contracts for brownfield modifications at two other Equinor facilities, the offshore Grane oilfield and the onshore Kollsnes gas processing plant, earlier this year. It also secured a contract extension this month for engineering, construction and maintenance at North Sea fields operated by the UAE’s Taqa.