– It is still a solid and good project – E24

On Wednesday, E24 / Stavanger Aftenblad wrote that the Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) will investigate the development of Castberg, which has experienced a number of problems.

Geir Tungesvik is Equinor’s Director of Technology, Projects and Drilling, and has participated in meetings with the Authority on challenges in the hull construction of the field’s production ship, which is being carried out at the Sembcorp shipyard in Singapore.

– What do you think that the PSA now wants to investigate the Castberg project?

– I think it’s okay. We have implemented our own review of the Johan Castberg project to find out how we can learn from the fact that we found more bugs than expected, says Tungesvik.

– The fact that the PSA wants to see the same as we believe is perfectly fine and of course we will take care of what is found and try to learn from it, he says.

He says the company has a good picture of the problems on the production ship, after the crown crisis has stalled in recent months. Now the company believes it has control over what should be done.

Bellona expects a billion crack

Bellona claims that the Castberg development can explode with NOK 10 billion and perhaps up to NOK 30 billion.

– We don’t recognize ourselves in the Bellona accusations, says Tungesvik.

However, the Equinor summit will not provide a new cost estimate for the project. It will appear for the first time in the state budget for 2021, which will be presented in October. Equinor has previously said that the deferrals will cost money.

– The project is heavily affected by covid-19, as there has been a complete shutdown at the shipyard and almost no progress for many months, says Tungesvik.

Bellona leader Frederic Hauge believes Equinor should assume they don’t have to break ship to make improvements.

– If they have to dismantle the ship, it will quickly cost 10 billion crowns. If they have to do extensive repairs, it will soon be 30 billion, Hauge tells E24.

– Good project and robust

– Are you worried about what happened?

– I’m not worried about what happened, now that we have the summary. But I am concerned about the risk of all projects in my portfolio due to covid-19. This is not over yet and it worries me, says Tungesvik.

A possible crack at Castberg will add to a crack of around NOK 26 billion in the Martin Linge project, which Equinor replaced Total.

– What do you think if there is now a crack in Castberg, after the crack in Martin Linge?

– Castberg is still a solid and good project. It is a low equilibrium price. Nothing that has been revealed makes this a bad project. Covid-19 affects the project, but now we have an overview of the welding challenges and software bugs and have made a plan for the project to meet our requirements, says Tungesvik.

– What we see is that covid-19 affects almost all the projects I have. They are affected by what has happened and by the rules we follow to prevent a resurgence. No project is free, but some are more affected than others. We just have to try to handle this in the best way possible, says the project manager.

Keeps the use of time

Tungesvik also sticks to the company’s previous estimates that around six percent of the remaining hours will be used to fix welding problems and a DNV GL software bug that led to design errors in smaller parts of the hull.

– Has Equinor been too bad during construction?

– Constructions were made in four different locations, and all welds have been within our acceptance and the quality we expect. But it was when we put these units together that we discovered a higher than expected error rate, says Tungesvik.

– So we decided to check 100 percent of the assembly welds and now we have made a plan on how it will be fixed. The ship doesn’t leave Singapore until it meets our requirements, he says.

Bellona criticizes Opedal

The Bellona environmental foundation has written two warning letters about the development of Castberg to the Norwegian authorities.

There they pointed out the welding problems, and that a DNV GL software bug has led to incorrect calculations of the resistance in parts of the hull. The error may have affected other production vessels as well, the organization warned.

Bellona leader Frederic Hauge believes Castberg’s problems are a scratch in the paint for incoming Equinor CEO Anders Opedal. He was previously responsible for Equinor projects, but Tungesvik took over in August.

– When the PSA investigation is completed, Opedal will lose credibility as the CEO of Equinor, Hauge says.

However, Tungesvik believes that the entire company is responsible for development.

– I am responsible for Johan Castberg and the subsequent monitoring of this and other company projects. The way we do it, we make decisions in the company and stand united behind them, he says.