By the OGJ Online Staff
LONDON, Feb. 22�BP has given Coflexip Stena Offshore AS's Houston-based subsidiary, CSO Aker Maritime Inc., a contract for up to five spar-design floating production platforms for deepwater developments in the US Gulf of Mexico.
Under the deal announced Thursday, CSO Aker Maritime will take on engineering, procurement, fabrication, and delivery of the complete hulls and mooring systems of the "truss" spars, the first of which is scheduled for delivery in 2003. The agreement includes options for delivery of additional hulls and mooring systems for BP-operated deepwater fields in water depths ranging from 1,220-1,830 m.
The value of the multiple platform deal was not disclosed, but CSO classed it as being "the largest in scope and value for the group."
Tom Ehret, CEO of the CSO Group, said, "This award demonstrates the confidence major operators have in this key technology for their deepwater developments."
The BP contract, said Ehret, "further confirms the soundness" of CSO's strategic acquisition of Aker Maritime ASA's deepwater company business unit through a $625 million deal first announced last October.