New York, 24 September 2019 – The Aker group and the World Economic Forum (WEF) today announced the establishment of the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Norway (C4IR Norway), dedicated to harnessing the advances of technology to preserve our ocean and improve the environmental footprint of ocean industries. Through public-private partnerships, the Centre will develop governance frameworks and solutions for a sustainable and profitable ocean economy, using digital technology ranging from Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Blockchain.

The C4IR Norway will join the WEF’s global C4IR Network and collaborate with the Government of Norway and the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy. The Centre will provide a platform for partnerships on governance policies, research and business solutions that can accelerate the application of science, data and technology in the public interest. The Centre will be an independent non-profit foundation, financed initially by founding partner the Aker group. Aker has gained valuable experience through engaging in cross-sector partnering between its own commercial and non-profit entities, such as REV Ocean, Ocean Data Foundation and VI Foundation. Once operational, the Centre will be open to new partners and projects from both the public and the private sector.

“Throughout its 180-year history, the Aker group has been a driving force in the development of knowledge-based industry related to ocean resources,” said Aker President and CEO Øyvind Eriksen. “The ambition with this Centre is to leverage our offshore expertise and the Nordic model of collaboration between the public and the private sector to accelerate the application of technology that can reduce the industry’s environmental footprint.  Only through collaboration between business, government and NGOs will we unlock the great potential that resides in digital technology to promote sustainable development – for our societies, for value-creation and for the environment.”

To reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the ocean will need to provide the world with more food, jobs, energy and raw materials. According to OECD estimates, the value of the ocean economy could exceed USD 3 trillion by 2030, providing more than 40 million jobs. However, fulfilling this potential will require safeguarding and improving the health of the ocean.

“Building a sustainable ocean economy is one of the most important tasks and greatest opportunities of our time. To mitigate the threats to a healthy and productive ocean, we need to move faster,” underlined Vidar Helgesen, Norway’s Special Envoy to the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy. “The Norwegian government welcomes the new technology centre at Fornebu as an essential contribution to ocean health and wealth. It can bring together actors from business, academia and civil society in developing ground-breaking ocean solutions.”

Today, the ocean is under immense pressure notably due to climate change, pollution and overexploitation, with declining biodiversity as a result. Saving the marine ecosystems will require innovative policies, good governance, technology, research and new business solutions, based on sound scientific data.

“We have an opportunity to shape the future of emerging technology and the future of our planet,” said Børge Brende, President of the World Economic Forum. “The new Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Norway will bring together some of the world’s top minds to co-design innovation policy solutions to achieve the SDGs and protect our ocean. Powered by the Forum’s international network of Centres, this Affiliate will be able to accelerate and scale quickly.”

As an affiliate of the C4IR in San Francisco, which opened in 2017, the technology centre in Norway will be the only centre among the seven in the network to focus on the environment. The Centre’s initial projects will fall into three categories: minimising the environmental footprint of ocean-related industrial activities; harnessing big data to optimise marine resource mapping, monitoring and management; and using digital technology tools to protect marine biodiversity.

Across all the projects, C4IR Norway aims to showcase best practice among policymakers, industry practitioners, scientists and innovators; spread awareness; build knowledge and networks; promote solutions and share lessons learned.

The Aker group founding partner of the C4IR Norway is composed of Aker, Aker BP, Aker BioMarine, Aker Energy, Aker Solutions, Cognite and Kvaerner, as well as Ocean Data Foundation and REV Ocean. The Centre will at first be based at the Aker headquarters at Fornebu, Norway, before moving into the World Ocean Headquarters, an ocean cluster being developed by Aker and REV Ocean. The Centre will officially open on 1 January 2020. The recruitment of a director for the Centre is currently underway.

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The press conference for the launch of the C4IR Norway will take place on Tuesday 24 September 2019 at 13:15-13:45 EDT at the World Economic Forum Sustainable Development Impact Summit in New York. The event will be livestreamed and can be followed here: http://wef.ch/sdi19  

For further information, please contact:

Aker group:
Atle Kigen, Head of Corporate Communications
atle.kigen@akerasa.com
Tel: +47 907 84 878

Marianne Stigset, SVP Communications, Public Affairs and Sustainability
marianne.stigset@fpeiendom.no
Tel: +47 411 88 428

World Economic Forum:
Amanda Russo, Head of Media Content
Amanda.Russo@weforum.org
Tel: +1 415 734 0589

Aker BP has completed the company’s first campaign using a gangway for access from a vessel to an unmanned platform. The campaign was carried out in the first stage of the hook-up phase on Valhall Flank West in the North Sea.

The hook-up of Valhall Flank West started on Saturday, 20 June, just hours after the operation to install the topsides was complete. The early start-up was possible because personnel could be transported to the platform via a gangway on the Normand Jarstein vessel, so-called walk-to-work (W2W).

“Around 100 workers have lived on the vessel and been transported over to the platform. We have completed more than 1300 crossings during the course of this first hook-up phase, which lasted 9 days. The vessel has connected to the wellhead platform 50 times and we have had no system failures,” explains project manager Michael Bible for Valhall Flank West.

“The platform is designed to receive a gangway from a W2W vessel. We have prepared the campaign well. This solution is at least as safe as helicopter transport,” he adds.

John David Beckers is lead W2W engineer for the Valhall Flank West campaign.

 

Fast and cost-effective

The personnel mobilised on Norman Jarstein on 19 June in Stavanger. The vessel left the Valhall field once the campaign was successfully completed.

“Use of the W2W vessel has allowed us to increase the number of people working on the unmanned platform in this phase of the hook-up operation, compared with what would have been the case if we had to rely on helicopters to transport the personnel,” says the project manager.

“We have thus completed the campaign in a safe, predictable, fast and cost-effective manner, as compared with using helicopters. All work has been delivered according to plan and feedback from our personnel is that they too have experienced W2W as a safe and efficient work method,” Bible emphasises.

The gangway technology on board Normand Jarstein was delivered by the company Ampelmann. In general, the equipment can operate in significant wave heights of up to approximately 2.5 metres, but this is also dependent on other factors such as wind direction and wave periods. In this campaign, the bridge was disconnected, and the vessel moved away from the platform after each transfer of personnel.

A solution for the future

Aker BP’s goal is to establish a practice for using vessels with gangways for transport and accommodation of personnel who are to work on normally unmanned platforms. Use of W2W vessels for transporting personnel is a known and accepted solution outside the Norwegian continental shelf, both within the oil and gas industry and within renewables. W2W has also been used previously on the Norwegian shelf.

“Introducing W2W supports our first and foremost priority – safety for personnel,” says Valhall manager Per Mikal Hauge.

“There are more and more unmanned platforms on the Norwegian shelf, and they are also an important part of Aker BP’s strategy for future developments. The Valhall Flank West campaign that has been implemented safely and efficiently is therefore important in Aker BP’s path to establish this as a practice,” concludes Hauge.

The Maersk Invincible rig is now in place on the field. It will drill wells and function as an accommodation rig through the remainder of the hook-up and commissioning work on Valhall Flank West.

Production start-up from Valhall Flank West is planned in the fourth quarter of 2019.

The original accommodation platform at Valhall (QP) in the southern part of the North Sea has been safely removed by the giant vessel Pioneering Spirit. This was the first of the original structures at Valhall to be removed as part of the modernization of the Valhall field centre.

Executed in the morning of Friday 14 June, the single-lift operation took 2 hours to complete from positioning Pioneering Spirit around the 3800 t platform to the moment of the lift. The actual “fast lift” of the topsides took only 9 seconds. The 109 t bridge connecting the QP topsides to the neighbouring drilling platform was removed using one of the vessel’s cranes on Tuesday 11 June.

– Together with Allseas and the team at Pioneering Spirit, we have successfully concluded two years of engineering, planning and pre-lift preparations. The safe and efficient removal of the QP platform is an important milestone for Valhall and for Aker BP, says Per Mikal Hauge, Vice president Valhall asset.

 

Removal of the QP topsides is the first job for Pioneering Spirit under the frame agreement which Allseas signed with Aker BP in 2017 to provide transport, installation and removal services for the Valhall field. The QP topside will be transported to- and disposed at the Kvaerner disposal yard at Stord.

A giant field
The Valhall field was discovered in 1975 and put into production in 1982 with three installations; a process / production platform, a drilling platform and an accommodation platform (QP). More recently a wellhead platform (WP) and Injection platform (IP) was installed. Lastly, production from the new process / accommodation platform (PH) started in January 2013.

The QP topsides is the first of the three original structures to be removed from the field centre. The remaining platforms at the field centre – IP, WP and PH – and the Flank platforms will produce for many, many years to come.

Valhall and Hod have passed one billion barrels of oil equivalents (oil, gas and NGL) produced – thus more than three times what was expected at the opening of the field in 1982.

– The continuous high activity level at Valhall, with simultaneous drilling operations, plugging and abandonment of old wells, removal of the original three platforms, multiple new wells and a the new Flanke West platform soon to be installed demonstrates our determination to reach the ambition of another billion barrels produced from the area, says Per Mikal Hauge

Aker BP ASA has awarded frame agreements with three suppliers for the provision of Platform Supply Vessels.

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Profitable growth and increasing dividends

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Today, Aker BP became the first company on the Norwegian Continental Shelf to operate a staffed platform from an onshore control room. Ivar Aasen in the North Sea is now operated from Aker BP’s offices at Trondheim torg (video in Norwegian).

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Maersk Invincible has completed the plug and abandonment (P&A) programme of wells at the Valhall field centre much sooner than planned, with no harm to people, equipment or the environment – and zero CO2 and NOx emissions.

Since May 2017, Maersk Invincible has plugged a total of 14 wells at the original drilling platform (DP). In the period 2014-2016, the first 12 wells on DP were plugged – at the time using the Maersk Reacher drilling rig.

The P&A work has been completed much faster than planned. For example, the average time per well has been reduced by 50 per cent compared with the first phase, despite a rise in the complexity of the wells towards the end of the campaign.

“We had a fantastic team in place, both onshore and offshore, many of them going back to when the P&A programme started with Maersk Reacher. The collaboration with Maersk Drilling, as with the service companies, has been excellent. Throughout the campaign, there has been a continuous search for improvements”, says Aker BP’s SVP Drilling and Wells, Tommy Sigmundstad.

Maersk Invincible has now moved to Valhall Flank North, where it will drill an injection and a production well.

Long-term plans for Valhall

Plugging wells on the DP platform is a key part of the work to modernize the Valhall field centre. The three original platforms from when the field started producing in 1982 – QP, DP and PCP – will be removed. Four wells remain to be permanently plugged prior to the removal of the DP platform.

“For the development of Valhall, the success of the P&A campaign is crucial. Above all, permanent plugging makes a key contribution to HSE because it secures the non-producing wells. In addition, the P&A team has completed its operations quickly and efficiently. This means lower costs and shorter run times”, says Vice President for the Valhall Asset, Per Mikal Hauge.

The remaining platforms at the field centre – IP, WP and PH – as well as the Flank platforms will produce for many, many years to come.

Zero CO2 and NOx emissions

Maersk Invincible has been supplied with electricity through the Valhall field when conducting the P&A scope. It is probably the first time ever a drilling rig has been powered fully from shore.

Calculations show that electrification of the drilling rig has reduced the annual local emissions by 15,200 tonnes of CO2 and 168 tonnes of NOx.

This has been a pioneer project for Aker BP, underpinning the company’s strategy of developing solutions that contribute to minimizing the environmental consequences of our activities.

Aker BP today announced that it has signed a ventures cooperation agreement with BP to explore possible areas of cooperation in the development and deployment of advanced technologies in their businesses.

Through their planned strategic alliance, BP and Aker BP intend to explore potential venture capital investments targeting technology and innovation improvements, including developments in digital twins, advanced seismic techniques and processing, and subsea and robot technology. The alliance is also expected to include identifying and evaluating innovations which could improve the environmental performance of offshore oil and gas production.

Steve Cook BP Technology’s chief commercial officer said: “BP has built a strong track-record of targeted investment through BP Ventures in a range of technologies and sectors.  Working together with Aker BP, our alliance will be focused on identifying technologies that could be transformational in the upstream sector, enabling the digital transformation of subsurface characterisation and workflows. Our alliance will help both companies identify and invest in innovation that will help secure and advance our industry’s future.  We believe that working together can deliver real value for both BP and Aker BP.”

Karl Johnny Hersvik, the CEO of Aker BP said: “Aker BP is very pleased to expand the cooperation with BP. We want to leverage this alliance to expand our capacity to identify innovative technology companies that can help us to solve our key business challenges. Aker BP targets to become a preferred partner for such companies through various cooperation models, including potential equity investments.”

About BP Ventures
BP Ventures identifies and invests in private, high growth, potentially game-changing technology companies, accelerating cutting-edge innovations across the entire energy spectrum. Since 2006, BP Ventures has invested over $400 million in corporate venturing and has  42 active investments in its current portfolio.

BP Ventures’ portfolio is primarily focused on emerging technologies in oil and gas exploration and production and downstream conversion processes. In addition, it has a renewed strategic focus on five key areas: advanced mobility, bio & low carbon products, carbon management, digital transformation and power & storage.

About Aker BP
Aker BP ASA was formed in 2016 through the combination of Det norske oljeselskap and BP’s Norwegian exploration and production business. Combining the assets and expertise from both companies Aker BP is the largest Norwegian independent oil and gas producer.  Aker BP is independently operated and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. The company is headquartered at Fornebu outside Oslo and has offices in Stavanger, Trondheim, Harstad and Sandnessjøen. BP holds a 30% interest in Aker BP.

Further information
BP press office, London: +44 (0)20 7496 4076, bppress@bp.com
Aker BP press office, +47 40224217, ole-johan.faret@akerbp.com

 

Maersk Drilling and Aker BP have agreed to a one-year contract to deploy high-performance rig Maersk Integrator on the Norwegian shelf from June 2019. The contract is founded on the alliance that the parties entered into in 2017. (mer…)

Aker BP and Google demonstrates how digital solutions has started to reconstruct the oil industry

Aker BP’s CEO, Karl Johnny Hersvik on stage with Google’s Darryl Willis, VP Oil, Gas, and Energy, Google Cloud. They are speaking together and demonstrating Cognite’s data platform at ONS2018 in Stavanger