Offshore staff
STAVANGER, Norway – Statoil says the world’s first subsea wet gas compressor station is in place on the seafloor near the Gullfaks C platform in the Norwegian North Sea.
In early May the heavy-lift vesselOleg Strashnov installed the compressor station and its protective structure, while the Seven Viking installed the compressor and cooling modules late last month.
Assuming testing of the complete compressor station goes to plan, it should begin operating before year-end, Statoil added.
The compressor will be hooked up between the L and M subsea templates and Gullfaks C. More subsea wells could be tied into the compressor through existing pipelines.
The equipment will be tied back to the Gullfaks C platform during late summer and the fall. Apply Sørco is managing associated work at Gullfaks C.
Subsea wet gas compression should allow Statoil to extract a further 22 MMboe from Gullfaks and extend plateau production by around two years.
A wet gas compressor does not require any treatment of the well stream prior to compression. The alternative, a topsides compression module, would have imposed extra weight and occupied extra space on the platform.
07/07/2015
