Statoil has awarded Aker Maritime’s subsidiary Aker Verdal a contract for the delivery of the Kvitebjørn platform jacket. The contract, which is worth just under NOK 600 million, has been won against international competition. Over the last two years Aker Verdal, along with the rest of the group, has undergone extensive restructuring in order to become more competitive, and this contract confirms that these measures are producing results.

Aker Verdal’s contract includes engineering, materials procurement and fabrication of the jacket and the piles to hold it in place on the seabed. The project will be performed in cooperation with Aker Engineering in Oslo, which is Aker Maritime’s centre of expertise for jacket engineering. Engineering gets under way with immediate effect, while fabrication at Verdal will start at around year-end. In the construction period the assignment will employ about 250 people on average. When the jacket is delivered in August 2002, it will be the 25th delivered by Aker Verdal.