Even though the joint venture was dissolved earlier this year, Spars International Inc., a 50-50 JV of Aker Maritime Inc. and J. Ray McDermott, has been awarded a spar floating production platform contract for Nansen field, operated by Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Corp., in the Gulf of Mexico. Spars International had bid for the contract before its dissolution (OGJ, Feb. 14, 2000, p. 32).
Aker Maritime will be responsible for the engineering, procurement, fabrication, and delivery of the complete hull and moorings and, in conjunction with J. Ray McDermott, will deliver the risers.
Nansen is the fourth deepwater field in the Gulf of Mexico to be developed using spar technology. The first three spar platforms in the gulf are so-called caisson spars, with a cylindrical hull from top to keel.
The Nansen platform will be the gulf's first truss spar, which incorporates a tubular truss system replacing the lower part of the cylindrical hull. The hull for Nansen will be 165.5 m tall, with a diameter of 27.4 m and a displacement of 30,000 tonnes. Delivery of the spar is scheduled for fourth quarter 2001.
Nansen field is on East Breaks Blocks 601, 602, and 646. It is about 200 km south of Galveston, Tex., in about 1,130 m of water.
Production is expected to peak at 40,000 b/d of oil and 200 MMcfd of gas, coming from as many as eight wells connected to dry wellheads on the platform.
