Wärtsilä Corporation, Press release 21 May 2002
Wärtsilä has been contracted by BP to supply a 15.3 MW power plant for BP’s Thunder Horse offshore project in the Gulf of Mexico. The power plant will be installed on the drilling and production platform now under construction in Korea.
The Thunder Horse field is the largest oil and gas discovery to date in the Gulf of Mexico. The field will be developed by BP and ExxonMobil, which owns a 25% interest in the development. BP will act as the field operator.
This platform, the largest semi-submersible production platform in the world, will be delivered from Korea in 2004. The Wärtsilä engines are critical to the project as they will provide essential power for all hull and drilling rig related services, allowing the platform to be commissioned before it leaves the shipyard in Korea. Once the platform arrives at the US Gulf coast, the Wärtsilä engines will provide onboard power while the topside process modules are integrated with the platform hull.
The BP Thunder Horse order is Wärtsilä’s first offshore production unit project in the Gulf of Mexico. Wärtsilä has experience from floating production unit applications in the North Sea, Brazil, China and Africa.
Wärtsilä is the world’s leading global ship power supplier and a major provider of decentralized power generation systems and of supporting services. In addition Wärtsilä operates the Nordic engineering steel company Imatra Steel and manages a substantial holding to support the core business.
This is the shorter of two versions of this press release. The longer version, written only in English, contains further technical details and is available on Wärtsilä’s website www.wartsila.com
Media contact:
Eeva Kainulainen
Vice President, Corporate Communications
Wärtsilä Corporation
Direct tel: +358 (0)10 709 5235
eeva.kainulainen@wartsila.com
