Will Sembmarine clinch the new Johan Castberg vessel deal?

It previously won the deal for the vessel's hull in December 2017.

Oil and gas giant Statoil is expected to announce the contractor that will build the topside of the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel for its Johan Castberg project as soon as this week, DBS Equity Research said, citing a report from Upstream.

DBS' report said that whilst there are no outright winners, Norwegian Kvaerner could have an upper hand. However, Sembcorp Marine (Sembmarine) playing a role "should not be ruled out."

Sembmarine secured the contract to build the hull and living quarters for the Johan Castberg FPSO in December 2017.

Industry sources estimate that the topside construction and integration jobs could be worth more than US$1b which could be split into two separate awards.

DBS analyst Pei Hwa Ho said, "We hold on to our belief of oil and gas recovery and Sembmarine as one of the best proxies to ride the O&M recovery with a strong order win pipeline."