Aker Oilfield Solidtions, a part of newly spun-off firm Akastor, has been notified of a five-year contract extension from Petrobras to use the Skandi Santos, a subsea equipment support Vessel in Brazil.
The extension, worth about NOK2.5 billion, will start 1 March 2015 in direct continuation of current contract. The vessel is currently operating under a five-year contract with Petrobras that began March 1, 2010.
The Skandi Santos is designed to install and retrieve subsea trees and modules, including subsea structures and manifolds at up to 2300m water depth. The vessel will during the contract extension period continue with its current scope of work and also start installing Petrobras' new generation of subsea trees offshore Brazil.
The Skandi Santos and the installed remotely operated vehicles are owned by DOF Subsea and leased to AKOFS Offshore, who owns and operates the vessel's topside and subsea equipment.
In April, Aker Solutions announced it would split into two separate companies to speed up a bid to reduce costs via streamlining and "better position" the business in an increasingly competitive global energy industry.
The subsea, umbilicals, engineering and maintenance, modifications and operations (MMO) units have become a new business, taking the Aker Solutions name. This unit started trading today (29 September).
This unit will be streamlined to focus on the fast-growing deepwater and subsea oil-services markets and in areas with operational, commercial and strategic similarities.
The other units, including drilling technologies, Aker Oilfield Services and process systems, will be developed independently, as part of a new oilfield services investment company, to be called Akastor.