Aibel
“We had PDMS Global synchronizing the database between locations. We’d be actually doing something here in Oslo, and showing it in Thailand in half an hour or so – and you can actually rely on it. The database takes care of these things so we can just worry about the engineering.”
– Knut Storsveen;
Lead CAD Advisor, Aibel
Goals
- To facilitate collaboration across multiple international offices.
- To deliver the Johan Sverdrup Drilling Platform on time and under budget.
Challenges
- Engineers working in different offices around the world.
- Scale of project unsupportable by most software.
Results
- 22,500 ton drilling platform delivered on time and under budget
- 55,000 drawings created, with a 20% reduction in engineering hours
- 15% more efficiency in engineering hours projected in Phase 2
Aibel Delivers on Big Oil Project with AVEVA
Aibel is a leading service company within the upstream oil & gas industry. A longtime partner of AVEVA, Aibel delivers customized turnkey solutions for engineering, construction, modifications, and maintenance. A company of 4,000, Aibel operates out of nine offices spread out across Norway, Denmark, and Southeast Asia.
“AVEVA has been a partner, I would call it a partner, not a vendor but a partner, for a long time, and has been developing customised solutions for us at Aibel because we’re a very specialized company.”
– Stig Jessen;
Project Director, Aibel
The Johan Sverdrup Drilling Platform
Aibel’s latest project involved the engineering, procurement, and construction of a 22,500 ton drilling platform for a global energy company called Equinor (previously Statoil). The scope of the project was massive, but having utilised AVEVA PDMS for the past 20 years, Aibel knew they had the manpower and software necessary to complete the $1.2 billion project on time and under budget.
“I would say that AVEVA software is one of very few software solutions that would be able to handle the scale of a project like Johan Sverdrup because of the millions of moving parts. It’s a project that’s being developed in different places of the world, so you need to be able to work together across different offices.”
– Harald Gunnerod;
Senior Account Manager, AVEVA
More than 850 engineers from all over the world contributed to the engineering and design phase of the project alone. At its peak, Aibel employed 300 AVEVA PDMS licenses, resulting in upwards of 55,000 CAD drawings before all was said and done. According to Aibel, a smooth design process wouldn’t have been possible without PDMS Global’s multi-site functionality
“We had PDMS Global synchronizing the database between locations. We’d be actually doing something here in Oslo, and showing it in Thailand in half an hour or so – and you can actually rely on it. The database takes care of these things so we can just worry about the engineering.”
– Knut Storsveen;
Lead CAD Advisor, Aibel
Celebrating with a Proper Sendoff
Upon completion of the platform in May 2018, Aibel hosted a “Sailaway Event” at their yard in Haugesund where the entire town was invited to see the platform for themselves. Those in attendance had the opportunity to tour a digital twin of the platform via AVEVA Engage and AVEVA VR before exploring the physical platform itself. Aibel was justifiably proud of their work. Not only did they complete the project on time and under budget, they saw a 20 percent reduction in engineering hours, thanks to its talented team and AVEVA’s powerful software.
A New Era Begins
Beginning with Phase II of the Johan Sverdrup project, Aibel will pivot away from PDMS in order to incorporate a new and improved suite of software solutions – AVEVA E3D and AVEVA Engineering.
With AVEVA’s latest and greatest solutions now in their repertoire, Aibel will only continue to increase their engineering efficiency, setting themselves up to take on more projects like Johan Sverdrup. Storsveen was concerned that his engineers may resist a change in software, but alas: Quality talks.
“We were expecting more fuss from the engineers, but people seem to be happy to have a newer tool to work with.”
– Knut Storsveen;
Lead CAD Advisor, Aibel
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