Norwegian engineering and construction firm Kvaerner has opened an office in Moscow to position itself for future arctic construction projects.
Kvaerner's office in Moscow is being led by Andrey Plotnikov, with a staff of 10 people currently focusing on business development activities. The new office hosts the 50/50 joint venture company Kvaerner VOSTCO Contractors.
Kvaerner says the move will strengthen its presence in Russia, where the company sees future opportunities in the sub-arctic and Arctic regions.
Opportunities are particularly within the concrete substructure segment, for which there are also prospects in Arctic areas of Greenland, Canada, and Alaska.
“The interest in all Arctic regions is strong and the recent discovery in the Flemish Pass Basin supports the future potential in the Arctic area offshore Canada,” said Kvaerner.
Kvaerner is currently involved in engineering, procurement and construction activities for the Hebron gravity based structure project in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Engineering is being done in St. John's and construction at the Bull Arm fabrication site, where concrete pouring of the major slip form up to an elevation of 27m was completed in September.
Kvaerner says it has been active in Russia for more than 10 years and has delivered three concrete gravity base structures and a utility module, all constructed in Russia.
Projects include the Sakhalin II project in 2005 and Sakhalin I in 2012.
Outlining its Q3 results, the firm said order intake increased to NOK1,690 million, compared to NOK1,438 million in the same period last year. The current order backlog stands at NOK26,908 million. About 15% of the backlog is estimated by Kvaerner to the executed in the remainder of 2013. A further 50% is expected to be executed in 2014, and the remaining 35% in 2015 and later.
Kvaerner said it expects the market to remain active, with new development projects due to be awarded over the next few years, both on the Norwegian Continental Shelf and internationally.
In 2013, front end engineering and design projects for new developments will be executed. These projects are expected to be tendered for in 2014 and beyond.
But, the firm warned competition is fierce, both from South East Asia and Europe.
In its Jackets business, Kvaerner said it saw high activity levels on the Martin Linge and Edvard Grieg projects during Q3, with three roll-ups successfully completed. Activity will continue at the Verdal Yard for the next two quarters.
Kvaerner has also recently completed a project for offshore wind farm jackets for the North Sea Ost project.
Kvaerner said final assembly activities on Eldfisk were on-going and commissioning that had started. Work on the Edvard Grieg topside continues, with the main activities being finalization of detailed design and procurement work.
Image: Kvaerner's yard at Verdal, Norway.
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