A contract worth some NOK 80 million to install freefall lifeboats on Statoil’s Statfjord B and C platforms in the North Sea has been awarded to Vetco Aibel.

Involving the replacement of conventional craft on the two installations, this order is conditional on a go-ahead for the Statfjord late life project.

The latter is intended to extend the field’s producing life, and a decision on whether to proceed should be reached in the first quarter of next year.

The total delivery from Vetco Aibel will include six freefall lifeboats for the B platform and nine for Statfjord C, with installation due to be completed during October 2005.

Work will take place at the company’s Haugesund facility north of Stavanger as well as offshore, and engage about 100 people at peak.

“We’re replacing the lifeboats after a total assessment of the field’s producing life and in anticipation of a high level of late-life activity,” says project director Bjarne Bakken.

With freefall lifeboats already installed on Statfjord A, the replacement programme would mean that all Statoil’s platforms in the Tampen area of the North Sea have these modern craft.