ABB Wins $95-million in Orders to Build and Operate Offshore Oil Production Units; Repeat Contracts With Norway's Bergesen for Oil Processing Systems.

Business Editors

ZURICH, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 05, 2001

ABB has won two orders from Bergesen d.y. Offshore, the Norway-based floating production contractor, to build and operate the oil processing systems on two floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) units.

The value of the order is US$ 95 million.

One of the FPSOs, "Berge Hus," is expected to be ready for operation in January 2002 and will be able to process 160,000 barrels of liquids per day. The second FPSO, "Berge Helene," will have a production capacity of 60,000 barrels of oil per day and is expected to be ready for operation during the summer of 2002.

Under the terms of the contract, ABB will engineer and construct both oil processing units, including control and automation systems, and run them for four years or longer.

ABB started its relationship with Bergesen in November 2000 when it delivered and began operating the processing module for another FPSO, "Sendje Berge" on the Ceiba field outside Equatorial Guinea, West Africa. The Sendje Berge process module has achieved a 99-percent up-time since operations began.

Gorm Gundersen, Group Executive Vice President and head of ABB's Oil, Gas and Petrochemicals division, said the latest order from Bergesen reinforces ABB's position as a leading supplier to the growing FPSO market. "We have the people, technology and understanding of the offshore oil business to build our position even further," he said.

ABB (www.abb.com) serves the utilities, manufacturing and process industries and the oil and gas sector. With 160,000 employees in more than 100 countries, ABB offers customers a broad range of power products, automation products and financial services, as well as industry-specific products, solutions and services.