Aker 'plays down' Cat-B cost fears

Investment risk: Aker Solutions boss Oyvind Eriksen

Berit Roald / Scanpix

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By Steve Marshall and news reports

 22 February 2013 15:33 GMT

The boss of Aker Solutions has reportedly poured cold water on financial market concerns over technical challenges in the design of a so-called Category B rig for Statoil – but warned the project remains conditional on an “acceptable return” for the contractor.

Shares in the Oslo-listed engineering giant plunged more than 11% earlier this week after it revealed that engineering design work on the unit is taking longer than expected due to technology issues on developing the subsea and riser concepts for the unit.

Aker won an eight-year contract worth $1.9 billion last year to provide the bespoke Cat-B semi-submersible well intervention rig for the Norwegian state oil company, including options for an additional six years, with operational start-up scheduled for the second half of 2015.

However, the latest design hiccup has triggered fears among analysts that the contractor will not be able to deliver…

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