Offshore staff
OSLO, Norway – Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) Norway has granted Statoil consent to use new pipelines on the Åsgard field in the Norwegian Sea.
Statoil operates production license 094 on Åsgard, in partnership with ENI, Total, Petoro, and ExxonMobil.
The consent is related to the Åsgard gas transfer and Smørbukk Nord-Øst projects, and involves a new gas injection pipeline (G-101) and jumper (G-102) between the G and Åsgard A templates.
Concurrently, Statoil has applied for consent to use a new template, NB, and a new pipeline, NB-101. Production from a single well on NB will be tied in to the existing template N to transport production via NB-101 to the Åsgard B complex.
The new injection pipeline and jumper, due to enter service next month, will facilitate combined production and injection for templates G and K. Production from template NB should start in early December.
In the central Norwegian North Sea, PSA has approved the use of the jackup West Epsilon on the Gudrun field development for drilling and completion of production wells.
Gudrun, also operated by Statoil, is in production license 025, in 109 m (357 ft) water depth, and is being developed via a fixed process facility with integrated living quarters.
Drilling period will be performed in two phases. The first, due to start this month, involves drilling through the facility’s steel jacket, installed by the crane vessel Saipem 7000. The second phase will be conducted following installation of the platform deck in summer 2013, and should be completed by the following December.
The jacket, weighing around 7,000 metric tons (7,716 tons), is fixed to the seabed by 12 60-m (197-ft) piles. The pre-drilled production wells will tieback to the platform for partial processing and oil and gas export.
Final processing of Gudrun’s production will take place on the Sleipner A platform, with the gas being piped to the adjacent Sleipner T platform for carbon dioxide removal.
08/03/2011
