Offshore installation company Allseas will transport and install a new processing platform topside facility with well area and living quarters (NOA PdQ) in the NOAKA area development operated by Aker BP in the Norwegian North Sea.
The contract award follows the successful completion of front-end engineering and design (FEED) work for a single-lift transport and installation solution tailored to Allseas’ heavy lift vessel Pioneering Spirit for the NOA PDQ topsides, located some 200 km northwest of Stavanger.
Allseas Vice President Projects Matthijs Groenewegen says: "We are delighted that Aker BP has contracted Allseas to transport and install the NOA PdQ topsides facility. It will be one of the heaviest offshore installation projects in history”.
"Pioneering Spirit’s transport and single-lift capacity are unprecedented in the offshore industry. This contract shows that operators view Pioneering Spirit as a fast, safe, efficient, and sustainable option for the installation of offshore facilities.”
Allseas performed the FEED work for the topsides in close collaboration with Aker BP between September 2021 and December 2022.
The NOA PdQ will function as a hub operated by Aker BP, with other fields developed as subsea tiebacks or normally unmanned / unmanned platforms.
Allseas plans to deploy its massive Pioneering Spirit installation vessel to execute the work in 2026.
NOAKA 
The Pioneering Spirit offshore Norway - ©Allseas
Aker BP and its partners last Friday made a final investment decision to develop the NOAKA area, and submitted the plans for development and operation.
NOAKA consists of the NOA, Fulla, and Krafla license groups, and the area is located between Alvheim and Oseberg. The area contains a total of around 650 million barrels of oil equivalent.
The development concept consists of an unmanned production platform to the north developed by Equinor (Krafla UPP) and the already mentioned processing platform with well area and living quarters developed by Aker BP (NOA PdQ) to the south. NOA PdQ is planned with low manning levels and is also being developed to be periodically unmanned after a few years of operation.
The Frøy field will be developed with a normally unmanned wellhead platform that will be tied back to NOA PdQ. NOAKA also represents an extensive subsea development with a total of nine templates. 55 wells are planned in the area.
The gas will be exported through a shared pipeline from NOA PdQ via Krafla UPP to Statpipe, while the oil will be exported through a shared pipeline from NOA PdQ to the Grane oil pipeline. Separate joint ventures have been established for the export pipelines for gas and oil with Equinor as operator.
Aker Solutions will build the topsides and jackets for NOA PdQ and Frøy NUI. According to Aker Solutions, the PdQ platform weighing 28,000 tons will be mounted on a 20,500 ton steel jacket substructure.
NOAKA, now renamed Hugin, will be developed with a shared power supply from shore, operated by Aker BP. Connection to the central grid is planned in Samnanger in Vestland County.
The entire NOAKA area will be remotely operated from an integrated operations center and control room onshore in Stavanger.
New Names
Aker BP said Friday that new names would be used for licence groups and facilities in the area. The southern licence group, previously NOA, will be assigned the field name Hugin.
The northern licence group, previously Krafla, will be assigned the field name Munin. Fulla will keep its name.
The PdQ platform in the south will be named Hugin A, the NUI platform will be named Hugin B, and the UPP platform to the north will be named Munin. The area comprised by the overall development of Hugin, Fulla and Munin will be named Yggdrasil.
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