SLB and Subsea 7 announced May 2 that the Equinor ASA and the Subsea Integration Alliance, which comprises OneSubsea and Subsea7, signed a long-term strategic collaboration agreement that paves the way for exploratory work to begin on the Wisting Field offshore Norway and Bay Du Nord, offshore Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
The agreement enables early information sharing, technology innovation and other collaborative benefits expected to make subsea projects more economically viable, SLB and Subsea 7 said in separate press releases.
The agreement paves the way for collaboration to begin immediately on early, joint concept studies for two major projects. Under the same agreement, any resulting engineering, procurement, construction and installation work execution would be directly awarded to the alliance, if Equinor reaches final investment decision (FID) on the pair of projects.
Wisting is in the Barents Sea offshore Norway, and in November 2022, Equinor decided to hold off on the Arctic project due to ballooning project costs. Equinor operates the project with 35% interest on behalf of partners Aker BP with 35%, Petoro with 20% and INPEX Idemitsu with 10%.
Bay Du Nord is approximately 500 km northeast of St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, in 3,838 ft water depth. In May 2023, Equinor and partner BP decided to postpone FID on its $12 billion Bay Du Nord project for three years in an effort to lower project costs.