Aker Maritime and J Ray McDermott have agreed to market spar platform solutions independently for future projects to satisfy market demands for greater flexibility in deliveries of these floating offshore platforms.

Since 1996, Aker Maritime and J Ray McDermott have cooperated on spar deliveries, with Aker Maritime having responsibility for the hulls and moorings while McDermott has been responsible for the topsides and installation. Increasingly, however, clients show a preference for more flexibility in contracting for the various project elements. Both companies will now independently market and contract for engineering, design, fabrication, procurement, transportation and installation of Spar solutions.
The spar concept forms the basis for floating offshore oil and gas platforms, with a hull designed as a cylinder floating vertically in the water, supporting the topsides with equipment and living quarters. This design has proved a cost efficient solution for developments even in very deep waters, as is the case for many of the current major projects around the world. The spar platform has been utilized successfully on three major projects so far; Neptune, Genesis and Diana-Hoover, all of these in progressively deeper waters. Aker Maritime delivered the hull for all these projects, and McDermott delivered the topsides for Neptune.