Stories

On March 20, 2019 the largest offshore living quarters ever constructed sailed away from the Kvaerner Stord yard in Norway to the Utsira Height in the North Sea.

The Johan Sverdrup ULQ project, delivered by KBR in a joint venture with Kvaerner (K2JV), is impressive in size but was also notably completed on time and on budget.

The successful outcome of this significant project recently gained it global recognition with an Award of Merit in the Power/Industrial category of ENR’s 7th Annual Global Best Projects Competition. The competition identifies and honors the project teams behind outstanding design and construction efforts of the past year. ENR reported a record number of project entries and each were analyzed by a panel of industry veteran judges. The project awards are all examples of the risks, rewards and hurdles overcome when designing and building internationally.

“We are very proud of the outcome of the Johan Sverdrup ULQ project and the team deserves this recognition for the hard work that ultimately led to the successful sailaway of the topsides,” said Jay Ibrahim, President, Energy Solutions - Services.

K2JV assembled the topsides at Kvaerner's Stord yard with KBR providing engineering and procurement support during the construction and mechanical completion phase which was led by KBR’s Leatherhead office in conjunction with the Jakarta office. In addition, KBR was actively engaged in helping the client meet its targets of onshore commissioning and early habitat of the platform offshore.

The ULQ topsides accommodates up to 560 personnel and serves as the field center for the Johan Sverdrup development. The platform will provide the facilities to support all field production control and monitoring activities, a significant element of the site.

Congratulations to ENR’s Global Best Projects winners – all of which will be covered in more detail in the September 30 issue of ENR.