First shipment with parts for Gudrun

The work to lift foundation frames off the ship began early Sunday morning. (All photos: Øyvind Sætre/Aibel)

"Good quality"

“Incredibly exciting,” says Liv Auestad Skaar with a smile. She is Aibel’s construction manager for the Gudrun project in Haugesund.

In November, the shipment was sent from Aibel’s yard at Laem Chabang, Thailand.

“It’s great to see that we are on schedule and that the quality of everything that is being produced is so good,” Skaar continues.

Series of milestones

Gudrun’s platform deck will weigh almost 9,000 tonnes. Aibel is building three large modules – two in Thailand and one in Norway. Skaar is responsible for the one in Norway called M-10.

“The delivery from Thailand today is what we call grillage, that is to say foundation frames. The frames weigh more than 400 tonnes and the module I am responsible for will be assembled on top of these,” Skaar explains.

This was only the first of several milestones ahead. What is the next one?

“M-10 consists of five main sections and at the beginning of March we will lift the first of these in place. A few weeks later a shipment of new sections will arrive from Poland,” she says.

Busy at the yard

The Gudrun contract is worth NOK 2.8 billion to Aibel. The deck is like a huge jigsaw puzzle and in addition to the yard in Haugesund, Aibel’s offices in Oslo, Thailand and Singapore are involved in the project.

“We have found this to be a good way of working,” says Skaar.

The platform deck will be assembled in Haugesund and is scheduled to be handed over to Statoil in the spring of 2013.

“The Gudrun project is entering a busy period and this spring the project will have several hundred people in action at the yard,” the construction manager concludes.