Equinor’s move to acquire a stake in one of the largest undeveloped oil fields on the UK Continental Shelf could have implications for Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME).
The state-owned Norwegian oil major announced earlier this week that it had agreed to purchase a 40% stake in Rosebank from US oil major Chevron.
The field, which lies about 130 km northwest of the Shetland Islands, will use an FPSO which currently is in FEED phase.
TradeWinds reported that DSME is locked in a battle with SembCorp Marine to secure the offshore newbuilding project.
However, ABN AMRO analyst Thijs Berkelder says Equinor’s decision to buy the stake could push the decision process in favour of the Singapore yard.
“With Equinor having the Johan Castberg FPSO already under construction at SembCorp...it might potentially be able to grab some synergies. Equinor might be able to further lower the cost price when compared to Chevron,” he said in a note to investors.
“The purchase also again demonstrates that the majors still are focused on streamlining and optimising their project portfolio from a cost price perspective, a discipline essential to further outperform equity markets.”
