Statoil has awarded Framo Engineering a contact for the design and construction of the Gullfaks subsea gas compression plant. Gullfaks may become one of the first installations worldwide to employ subsea gas compression.
Siri Espedal Kindem, Statoil's senior vice president for technology. (Photo: Ivar Langvik)
"Subsea gas compression represents an important leap
forward in the efforts to improve recovery and extend the
producing life of several gas fields. Having implemented
this technology, we are also one step closer to our
ambition of moving processing facilities down on the
seabed. In other words, a subsea factory," says Siri
Espedal Kindem, Statoil's senior vice president for
technology.
As a field gets older, the natural reservoir pressure
decreases, and the well may need boosting in the form of
compression in order to produce more gas and bring the gas
up to the platform.
In 2011 Statoil and partner Petoro decided to choose a
subsea solution as the preferred concept for gas
compression some 15 kilometres from the Gullfaks C
platform.
Jannicke Nilsson, Statoil's head of operations North Sea West. (Photo: Helge Hansen)
"There are large remaining volumes in the Gullfaks field -
volumes that cannot be recovered with the existing concept
and installation. Subsea compression is one of our main
initiatives to enhance production from existing fields on
the Norwegian continental shelf. This may increase the
production from the field by three billion cubic metres of
gas, enabling Gullfaks to sustain plateau production for
gas export," says Jannicke Nilsson, Statoil's head of
operations North Sea West.
The current recovery rate on the field is 62 percent. A
combination of subsea compression and conventional
low-pressure production in a later phase may increase this
to 74 percent.
In 2009 Framo Engineering was awarded a technology
development contract after a study phase in 2008 with
several industrial suppliers. Now that the technology is
qualified and the concept has been matured for development,
the contract will be now awarded subject to a positive
investment decision.
This is the first delivery by Framo Engineering to Statoil
within engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of
subsea compression facilities.
"It is positive to note that there are several companies
capable of delivering services within this segment. We have
had a long-standing and beneficial partnership with Framo
Engineering as the supplier of pump systems. This
assignment builds on technology and project execution
skills stemming from there. We have driven technology
development together over time, which is now resulting in
an EPC contract for the first time," says Espedal
Kindem.
The contact is worth almost NOK 0.9 billion, depending on
final call-off. Taking effect immediately, the contract
runs until November 2015. Contracts for platform
modifications and marine operations in connection with the
Gullfaks development will be awarded during the
summer/autumn of 2012, subject to a positive investment
decision.
Last year Statoil and its partners decided to pursue subsea
gas compression on the Åsgard field from 2015, and the plan
for development and operation was approved by the Norwegian
parliament before Easter. Statoil is also involved in
technology qualification for the operator Shell for a
subsea compression concept at Ormen Lange.
Illustration of Gullfaks subsea gas compression unit.
(Illustration: Statoil)
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