Aker Kvaerner Secures Contract from BP

AK Engineering Services, part of the Aker Kvaerner group, has secured a multi-million pound contract to service two major onshore facilities for BP in the UK. The work will be performed by personnel from the firm's Stockton facility and from sister organisations in Aberdeen and Solent over the next three years. The scope of work covers the provision of engineering, modifications and maintenance services at BP's Wytch Farm production and transport facility in Dorset, and at the BP CATS (Central Area Transmission System) gas terminal on Teesside, North East England. The contract includes three further two-year extension options. Around 150 personnel from the three locations will be employed on the project. The new contract is the second to be awarded by BP to the Aker Kvaerner group in recent weeks. The first involves engineering, procurement services and construction management services for projects at several BP sites in Germany, work that is being carried out by Aker Kvaerner's European operations. Jarle Tautra, Executive Vice President for the firm's European E&C business area, says the latest contract is cause for great celebration: "We are delighted to be working with BP in the UK, which will enable us to consolidate the relationship we are building with BP in Germany. This project represents a major opportunity for the teams at our various locations to create a flagship contract that will deliver total life-cycle engineering services to both the CATS and Wytch Farm facilities." In operation since 1993, the CATS terminal receives and processes natural gas from the central UK Sector in the North Sea via a 400-kilometre pipeline system, which, in 2002, transported 1.7 billion cubic feet of gas a day to Teesside. The Wytch Farm development has been producing oil and gas since 1979. The oilfield lies a mile beneath the surface of Poole Harbour in Dorset, on the south coast of England, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The field is being developed by extended reach drilling from an onshore site, concealed from public view, to ensure minimum impact on the environment.