Offshore staff
KOPERVIK, Norway --First gas is flowing through the Gjøa Gas Pipe (GGP) in the Norwegian North Sea. It extends for 130 km (81 mi) from the Gjøa platform to the tie-in point with the Shell-operated Flags trunkline, which makes landfall at the St Fergus reception terminal north of Aberdeen, UK.
The 28-in (71-cm) pipeline eventually will handle rich gas exports from the Gjøa field and the satellite Vega field for onward delivery through the UK’s Far North Liquids and Associated Gas System (Flags).
Gassco took operatorship of the GGP on June 1, at the same time as the pipeline was incorporated into Norway’s Gassled transport system. This development is the first pipeline where the company has taken direct operational responsibility for technical operations without the support of a technical services provider.
“Taking on a new pipeline calls for extensive planning of the operator change and the start-up of gas transport,” says Svein Birger Thaule, Gassco’s senior VP for Technical Operation. “We’ve achieved this through good collaboration with development operator Statoil and platform operator GDF Suez. We’ll be responsible directly for all operations of the GGP.”
The combined Gjøa/Vega development, 40 km (24.8-mi) north of the Fram field, comprises subsea templates tied back to a semisubmersible production and processing platform. Produced oil will be exported to the Mongstad terminal near Bergen via a new 50-km (31-mi) pipeline tied into Troll Oil Pipeline II.
10/12/2010
