SLB OneSubsea wins Aker BP subsea contract for Lyra fast-track tieback

Aker BP has awarded SLB OneSubsea a contract covering subsea production systems, umbilicals and related services for the Lyra field development on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, targeting first oil in 2028 — three years after discovery.

Lyra, formerly known as Kjøttkake, lies in the northern North Sea roughly 44km from the Gjøa platform offshore Norway. The development plan calls for a subsea tieback to existing infrastructure using standardised subsea technology. The companies say this approach reduces development complexity, improves execution efficiency and accelerates the timeline to initial production.

For practitioners on the NCS, the contract matters less for its hardware scope than for its schedule logic. A three-year discovery-to-first-oil cycle compresses a timeline that has historically stretched well beyond that for marginal northern North Sea accumulations. The partners frame Lyra as a repeatable framework, potentially a prototype for future fast-track developments on the shelf.

What does the alliance model change?

SLB OneSubsea operates as a joint venture between SLB, Aker Solutions and Subsea7. Aker BP and the JV have worked together for nearly ten years under an alliance model, and that collaboration extended into the earliest phases of the Lyra project, where the two sides jointly shaped the field's development strategy.

SLB OneSubsea CEO Mads Hjelmeland said: "Lyra shows what is possible with fast-track field development. Working together from the earliest stages allows us to shape development strategies around our customers' priorities and create new opportunities for offshore resources."

That early involvement is the operational point. Vendor participation before concept selection — rather than after — is what allows standardised subsea equipment to be locked into the plan from day one, cutting engineering cycles that typically add time to marginal-field tiebacks.

How does Aker BP frame the economics?

Aker BP positions Lyra as proof that marginal resources can be made economically viable through fast-track execution rather than through higher price assumptions.

Aker BP senior vice president Marte Mogstad said: "Our alliance with SLB OneSubsea, combined with standardised subsea technology, has been central to how we are developing Lyra. The project demonstrates how we together can make marginal resources economically viable through fast track execution, with three years from discovery to first oil."

The takeaway for operators weighing similar accumulations: alliance-based, standardised tieback development is now delivering sanctioned timelines once thought reserved for larger projects.

Wider order book for the JV

The Lyra award adds to a growing SLB OneSubsea portfolio. In September 2026, the JV also secured a contract to supply subsea production systems for the first phase of the Rovuma LNG project in Mozambique's offshore Rovuma Basin — a materially different scope, gas rather than oil, but the same standardised-systems strategy.

What to watch

The watch item is execution against the 2028 first-oil target. If Aker BP and SLB OneSubsea hold the three-year cycle on Lyra, expect the alliance to market the framework to other NCS operators with stranded near-infrastructure discoveries.