Apache Energy awards Balnaves subsea systems

Apache Energy has awarded a $60 million contract to design and install subsea systems for its Balnaves oil and gas project off north-west Western Australia.

Technip's Deep Orient vessel. (Courtesy: Technip).

The contract was awarded to French engineering giant Technip and will be executed from a Perth-based operating centre.

Engineering work is expected to start immediately, with rollout scheduled to be completed "during the second half of 2013", Technip said in a statement.

Technip will install about seven kilometres of flowlines to pipe oil and gas from the Balnaves field and risers to bring it from the seabed to the surface.

The pipes are to be laid in about 135 metres of water.

Also included in the contract is about three kilometres of "umbilicals" — conduits that typically house electrical and/or fibre optic cables used to control subsea structures.

Technip plans to use a vessel called the Deep Orient to deploy the subsea components.

Deep Orient is still being built and will be used to service oil and gas projects throughout Asia.

ABC News reports that Apache will spend $438 million in total on Balnaves, which is expected to be producing oil by early 2014.