Total cancels contract for cutting-edge Skandi Aker

The termination leaves around $150m of unfulfilled contract to be deleted from Aker’s orderbook.

The two-year well-intervention deal between Total and Aker subsidiary Aker Oilfield Services was the first contract for the 175 m, 2010-built Skandi Aker, constructed at STX Europe’s Aukra shipyard in Norway. Maintenance and repairs on the vessel, which halted its operation at the end of March, limited the vessel’s capacity utilisation to 37% for the period so far in 2014.

“Skandi Aker is able to perform deepwater well intervention services that oil companies previously needed drilling rigs to conduct,” said Karl Erik Kjelstad, president of Aker Oilfield Services, at the time the contract began. “More importantly we do it quicker and more cost effectively, which will increase the frequency of intervention operations and enable our customers' subsea wells to produce more oil and gas.”

The full effect of the cancellation on Aker’s finances will not be revealed until the company’s Q2 financial results are released in mid July.

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