Aker Solutions signed an agreement with Murphy Sarawak Oil Co., a subsidiary of Murphy Oil Corporation, to deliver as many as 24 sets of splitter wellhead systems.
The contract, which includes deliveries of ancillary equipment and services, is worth $15 million over three years and may be extended by a year. Surface wellheads are used on land-based and shallow-water platforms for drilling and production equipment.
Murphy will use the equipment in the shallow water Blocks SK 309 and SK311, off the coast of Sarawak in East Malaysia.
"This is the first major surface wellhead contract for Aker Solutions in Malaysia," Dave Hutchinson, head of Aker Solutions' subsea operations in Asia said in a press release."We look forward to developing our relationship with Murphy in South East Asia, where we have worked together for several years."
Aker Solutions' splitter wellhead system enables drilling of two or more wells from a single well slot on a platform. This reduces the number of well slots needed by at least 50 percent and consequently requires less deck space.
Most of the equipment will be produced at Aker Solutions' dedicated surface wellhead manufacturing facility in Batam, Indonesia while Aker Solutions' Port Klang facility in Malaysia will produce the Shear-Safe surface gate valve actuators. The latter are used in the splitter wellhead system to improve the management of oil and gas flow under pressure.
Engineering and project management will take place at Aker Solutions' offices in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
Murphy as operator has an 85 percent interest in Blocks SK 309 and SK311, while Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd, a wholly owned exploration and production arm of Malaysia's national oil and gas company Petronas, holds the remaining 15 percent.
First gas production from fields in the two blocks began on Sept. 17, 2009, with the gas produced from the phased development supplied to the Petronas LNG Complex in Bintulu, Sarawak.
