When satellite images revealed oil on the sea surface at the Alvheim field, Aker BP reacted immediately by closing all necessary valves in order to stop the discharge. The subsequent handling of oil on the sea surface confirms that we have effective oil spill preparedness on the Norwegian shelf.

The oil spill from the Alvheim production vessel on 29 November occurred in connection with starting up the field following an unplanned production shutdown, where one well was producing. A preliminary estimate indicated a discharge of 51 m3 of oil through the produced water outlet.

The incident was reported to the authorities, and Aker BP’s emergency response organisation mobilised alongside the Norwegian Clean Seas Association for Operating Companies (NOFO*) and the Norwegian Coastal Administration to deal with the oil on the sea surface.

*NOFO is responsible for oil spill preparedness on behalf of the operating companies on the Norwegian shelf, NOFO – Home

NOFO and the Norwegian Coastal Administration chose to use the oil spill response measure known as mechanical degradation, where the propellers on the standby vessel Esvagt Stavanger mixed the oil down into the water column until it dissolved. Satellite and aerial surveillance measures were also initiated, in addition to the standby vessel’s oil radar.

The oil spill response measure proved to be highly effective and the oil slick was significantly reduced in size as early as the next day. The Norwegian Coastal Administration, in consultation with NOFO and Aker BP, decided to end the operation the next day, on 1 December. At this point, no oil was visible on the sea surface in satellite images and flyovers. The Norwegian Coastal Administration and NOFO have not reported that any harm has been caused to the environment (birds, fish, larvae).

“This oil spill response operation has been effective and was characterised by very good teamwork between the involved contributors,” says Ine Dolve, Aker BP’s SVP Alvheim.

“We’ve started an investigation of the incident aimed at learning and strengthening our barriers to avoid any similar incidents in the future,” Dolve adds.

Aker BP’s goal is to carry out all operations, drilling campaigns and projects with the highest possible HSE standards and without undesirable incidents.

“At the same time, we need robust and effective emergency preparedness in order to minimise consequences in the event that an undesirable incident should nevertheless occur. Our cooperation with NOFO and the Norwegian Coastal Administration shows that the Norwegian shelf has sound and effective oil spill preparedness in place, should the need arise,” says Marit Blaasmo, Aker BP’s SVP People & Safety.

On Friday December 1st, we invited students from 2nd and 3rd grade physics from Sandvika high school to an informative day at out offices. The plan for the day was to show the pupils some of what we work on at Aker BP to make our everyday life more efficient and optimized.

Topics for the day were drone technology for use on platforms, how we use AI technology in the form of interpretational algorithms for seismic and language models, and our measures to reduce emissions on drilling rigs. We also had a visit from Aker Solutions and Cognite, who discussed the use of robots today, as well as our ambitions around the use of robots on unmanned platforms in the future.

The Lysaker office is also within walking distance of Sollerudstranda, which contains many different geological formations that show how the landscape has been affected by various geological processes over millions of years. At the end of the day, the students were given a guided tour of Sollerudstranda by geologist Jon Halvard Pedersen.

The purpose of this day is to increase understanding and interest in our industry, and to show that you can work with a lot of different subjects at Aker BP, while also having a lot of opportunities for growth and development. The students were also able to hear how the various lecturers have ended up with the position they have today, to emphasize that you are not bound to one field of study for the rest of your life.

– I feel very engaged in this because I think it is extremely important that we, as a workplace and employer, visualize to students what they can actually work with, so that they want to enter our industry. We need young people and we need new engineers of all possible varieties, and so I think that days like these are important, says Tone Rølland, Supply Chain Manager for the Alvheim projects.

Last week, Aker BP organized a Hackathon* in our offices in Fornebu. Six teams worked for 36 hours solving six challenges using coding and data facilitation: AkerAgent, FlashLiberation, LibraryChat, MaxOil, PDFinders and Wellbert. A panel of judges named three winners: Best project, Best community contribution, and People’s award.

Winner of Best Project, AkerAgent, was a chatbot with access to a number of Aker BP’s underground databases and APIs. With the same design layout as ChatGPT or Bing Chat, you could ask questions that were directly linked to Aker BP’s well data and internally developed machine learning models, and get quantitative answers about things like reservoir quality, stratigraphy, and even more involved topics like whether there were signs of hydrocarbons the area.

The winner of the People’s Prize was PDFinders. The team made better use of the invoice information we receive in PDF format from subcontractors. Today we get pages of details on invoices that are never used. Using python and several different libraries, they extracted tables from invoices in PDF format, and used this data to analyze new ways of categorizing cost.

Winner of Best community contribution was LibraryChat. The solution will make it possible to retrieve data from all Aker BP’s internal Sharepoint pages, make it searchable, and feed this information into ChatGPT, which will be able to provide detailed answers about what is published on Sharepoint.

FlashLiberation addressed phase separation into liquids and gas, which often occurs when hydrocarbons are produced and transported through pipelines. Calculations can be made for how much of the liquid will evaporate during such transportation – today this is usually carried out by third parties. The FlashLiberation project allows anyone in AkerBP to do these calculations and build new applications leveraging these calculations without the help of third parties.

MaxOil looked at how to maximize oil production by optimizing well controls using explainable and causal AI.

The Wellbert team investigated how recent advances in language models could be applied for analysing measurements taken in boreholes when exploring and producing hydrocarbons.
This paves the way for potentially leveraging the vast data we have on the NCS and building better predictive models.

– Events like this are important to use the knowledge and creativity of skilled employees to solve difficult and valuable challenges for Aker BP. We have a very strong environment for analytics and data science in Aker BP. In a Hackathon, the analysts build networks, and manage to contribute to developing more efficient ways of working in Aker BP, says Hege Fjell Urdahl, VP Digital Insight. She was also on the panel of judges during this year’s Hackathon, and is a sponsor of the Data Science environment in Aker BP.

* A Hackathon can be described as a social coding event, where computer programmers and other interested parties gather to either improve already existing software or build new software.

Aker BP has secured new financing commitments that extend beyond the company’s current Revolving Credit Facility (RCF) to November 2028, with two extension options that have the potential to further extend the final maturity to 2030.

The new RCF is supported by core existing relationship banks, with the facility closing at USD 1.8 billion following over-subscription. The new RCF will seamlessly succeed the existing facilities upon maturity in 2026, ensuring that Aker BP has further extended its maturity profile.

The transaction was led by Co-ordinators Barclays Bank Ireland and DNB Markets.

Aker BP UK Limited, a subsidiary of Aker BP, has been offered a 50 percent stake in a license area within the UK North Sea sector. The license area is located near the Norwegian border, in close proximity to the Alvheim field operated by Aker BP.

In the 33rd UK Offshore Licensing Round, DNO and Aker BP have each been offered a 50 percent interest in the license consisting of blocks 9/9f, 9/10c, 9/14c and 9/15d. DNO is offered operatorship for the license.

“The petroleum systems and plays in this region extend across the UK-Norway border. Our objective with this license is to explore the resource potential within the greater Alvheim area”, said Olav Blaich, VP Exploration at Aker BP.

The work program commitments for the offered blocks include obtaining 3D seismic data and conducting studies for the area.

Aker BP (operator) and OMV have successfully completed the acquisition of a 3D seismic survey over the Poseidon CCS licence area (licence EXL005) in the Norwegian North Sea, situated approximately 100 km off the Norwegian coast.

The seismic acquisition campaign was carried out by PGS with the vessel Ramform Atlas. Covering more than 500 km², the campaign aimed to generate high-resolution imaging of the CO₂ storage complex and to provide a baseline for monitoring of the storage integrity.

The Poseidon 3D seismic survey was safely executed within schedule and budget.

About Poseidon CCS

In March 2023, Aker BP ASA and OMV (Norge) AS were awarded the Poseidon licence (licence number EXL005) in accordance with the CO₂ Storage Regulations on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The licence has a work program which includes a 3D seismic acquisition and related studies, followed by a drill-or-drop decision by May 2025 at the latest. Poseidon is a 50/50 partnership, operated by Aker BP.

Annually, the Finance Society Norway awards the Stockman Prize to the listed company in Norway that is best at informing the financial community and shareholders. Aker BP won the award today.

The Stockman Award is the financial market’s award, based on direct input from brokerage houses and Norway’s most prominent investors, which proposes relevant candidates and answers a market survey based on a list of criteria from the Finance Society Norway Stockman committee, which chooses a winner.

– This was both very pleasant and very inspiring. For us in the Investor Relations team, this award is proof that our clients in the capital market appreciate the work we do. Everyone who works with IR knows that this is a team effort. Many people in the company have contributed differently to where we are today, says VP of Investor Relations Kjetil Bakken.

The committee emphasizes several criteria such as accounting, financial presentations and information, and ESG reporting, which counts for 30 percent of the price.

Aker BP’s ESG reporting for last year has already received top marks in pure ESG ratings.

– This is yet another important recognition for the company and our thorough work within ESG over the years. Our ESG goals are an integral and essential part of Aker BP’s corporate strategy and perhaps the most critical reason we score so well in this assessment, says Sustainability Professional Eline Hagen Holsvik, who was responsible for the ESG report.

A wide range of people and functions in Aker BP are involved for the reporting to function optimally.

– Accounting and reporting are real teamwork, and this award is a great encouragement to continue and build the one team culture in Aker BP around our processes. There are quite a few people who work with the end product itself. Still, many more work behind the scenes and contribute to high integrity and trust in our reporting in the external market, says Jon Håkon Østhus, VP Financial Accounting & Integrated Reporting.

To kick-start the Outlook North conference, we will arrange a supplier-seminar together with Equinor on 1st of November from 08.00 to 10.30 at Quality Hotel Harstad.

At the seminar, you can meet Mette H. Otterøy, Director of Procurement at Equinor and Rolf Kristian Stave Nystein, VP Supply Chain Management & Logistics at Aker BP.

The target group for the seminar is everyone who is, or wants to become, suppliers to the oil and energy industry, as well as other interested parties. We organize this because we want to develop the industry and further strengthen cooperation with suppliers in northern Norway.

We hope to come in contact with existing and new suppliers, and we will use the seminar to talk about our upcoming projects and activities that may be relevant to the suppliers. Everyone is welcome to ask questions, and both Equinor and Aker BP are available for talks for those who are interested.

Aker BP has a big project portfolio

In June this year, the Storting approved Aker BP’s plans for development and operation for the Yggdrasil area and Fenris, as well as further development of Valhall. Yggdrasil and Valhall PWP-Fenris alone are making over NOK 165 billion in investments, and around 65% of these investments will come from Norwegian suppliers.

Program

08:00 Coffee and light breakfast is served

08:50 Welcome with Rolf Kristian Stave Nystein, Aker BP and Mette H. Ottøy, Equinor

09:00 Presentation by Equinor

09:30 Presentation by Aker BP

10:00 Questions from the audience

10:30 Wrap up

Press the button below to order a ticket.

Note: If you want to participate in Outlook North, you can «tick» that you want to participate in the supplier seminar as part of the «Conference ticket» order. If you only want to participate in the supplier seminar, you will find a separate ticket type for this.

We look forward to meeting you!

Aker BP was awarded the Exploration Innovation Prize for the development of machine learning models for use in exploration work. The company’s exploration department is already using the solution, often referred to as the ‘Exploration Robot.’

The machine learning models that have been developed can assist geologists and geophysicists in reconstructing missing well logs, making lithology predictions, calculating shale content, and mapping potential undiscovered reservoir areas. The solution can also provide an impartial assessment of log quality.

The prize is presented by Geopublishing and is awarded during the NCS Exploration Conference.

The jury was particularly impressed that the team has succeeded in creating a tool that is actually used and streamlines daily work.

Peder Aursand, Value Stream Manager and data scientist at Aker BP, presented the ‘Exploration Robot’ during the conference. He highlights three factors that have been crucial to their success.

«Firstly, we have focused on making the models work for the exploration team, not the other way around. Secondly, we have included explanations and quantification of inherent uncertainty as standard in the models. And we have made the models available in tools and software that the exploration team is already familiar with and uses daily,» says Aursand.

He received the award along with several representatives from the team that developed the Exploration Robot. In addition to Aursand, the team consists of Tanya Kontsedal, Kjetil Westeng, Yann Van Crombrugge, Christian Lehre, Martine Dyring Hansen, Peyman Rasouli, and Etienne Sylvain Peysson.