Heerema Fabrication Group (HFG), the Netherlands-based manufacturer of large structures for the oil and gas industry, has held a steel-cutting ceremony for Statoil’s unmanned wellhead platform (UWP) for the Oseberg Vestflanken 2 development, offshore Norway.

The company said on Thursday via social media that the ceremony was held at its Zwijndrecht yard in the Netherlands.

The ceremony comes days after Statoil’s Plan of Development and Operation (PDO) of Oseberg Vestflanken 2 was approved by Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.

To remind, Heerema signed the contract with Statoil for the engineering, procurement & construction (EPC) as well as the transport and installation of the UWP platform in February this year.

According to the contract, the Heerema Fabrication Group would carry out the engineering, procurement and construction of the unmanned wellhead platform and Heerema Marine Contractors (HMC) would be responsible for the transport and installation of the platform.

The start of fabrication of the UWP is on schedule as it was expected to start this month. The sail away of the platform is scheduled for summer 2017, followed by the installation with HMC’s semi-submersible crane vessel.

The Oseberg Vestflanken 2 platform will be installed in the Norwegian part of the North Sea at a water depth up to 110 meters and approximately 8 kilometers northwest of the Oseberg Field Centre. The topside will measure 25 x 23 meters, has a height of 20 meters and will weigh 900 tonnes. The jacket will have a height of 138 meters with a footprint of 36 x 36 meters and a weight of approximately 4,400 tonnes.

Oseberg Vestflanken 2 is the first of three planned phases for developing the remaining reserves in the Oseberg area, about 130 kilometers northwest of Bergen. Production start is scheduled for the second quarter of 2018.