Aibel wins Wisting FEED as Equinor weighs Barents Sea FID

Aibel will deploy roughly 250 engineers on front-end engineering and design for the Wisting production vessel topsides, after Equinor and partners awarded the Norwegian contractor the FEED assignment for the Barents Sea oil discovery.

The award, let through a competitive tender among Norwegian suppliers, covers topsides work only. Fabrication of the topside modules will be tendered separately. The contract carries an option for engineering, procurement and project management at a later stage. In plain terms: Aibel has won the drawings, not yet the steel.

Who holds what in the partnership?

Equinor operates Wisting with 42.5%. Aker BP holds 27.5%, Petoro 20% and INPEX Idemitsu Norge the remaining 10%.

The stakes matter because Wisting remains uncommitted. The partnership plans to select a project concept and decide whether to progress toward development by the end of 2026, with a final investment decision anticipated in late 2027. Everything awarded today feeds that decision; nothing yet guarantees it.

Equinor's project development senior vice-president, Trond Bokn, was blunt about the distance still to travel. "We are at an early stage in the development of Wisting, and considerable work remains to develop a project that is profitable and feasible," Bokn said.

He also framed the prize. "If we succeed, it will contribute to energy security for Europe and generate revenues for Norwegian society. Wisting will generate activity in the Norwegian supplier industry and in local communities in the north over a 30-year period," Bokn said.

Thirty years is the operative number for northern Norway's supply chain. A field producing across three decades outlasts most of the careers that would build it.

What sits under the seabed?

The discovery, well 7324/8-1, lies approximately 300 km north of the Norwegian coast in 400 m of water — a harsh-water setting by any measure.

Explorers found the field in 2013. Wells drilled in 2016 and 2017 further defined it. The reservoirs hold oil within sandstone formations of Early Jurassic age — the Nordmela and Stø — plus Late Triassic Fruholmen sandstone. The Nordmela and Stø intervals are reported to show favourable reservoir properties.

No recoverable volume figures accompany this award. That silence is itself information; Equinor is keeping the numbers close until concept selection firms up.

Where does the regulatory track stand?

The process has already moved on paper. In June, Equinor and its partners submitted a proposed environmental impact assessment programme for the Wisting development to Norwegian authorities.

That programme is a prerequisite, not a permit. It starts the clock on the consent process any Barents Sea development must clear before steel meets water.

Bokn addressed Aibel's arrival directly. "We are pleased to welcome Aibel to the Wisting team. This FEED contract will form part of the overall basis for a potential investment decision. We will work with the suppliers on improvements to enable the project to be realised," he said.

Note the wording: a potential investment decision. The operator has left itself room to walk away if costs refuse to cooperate.

The watch item

The dates to mark are the concept choice by end-2026 and the FID expected in late 2027. Until then, the fabrication tender for topside modules will signal whether the project is gathering momentum or stalling in estimate reviews.

Wisting is sanctioned only in ambition. The FEED contract buys Equinor time and information, which is precisely what a partnership holding 100% of an undeveloped Barents Sea discovery should buy.