Offshore staff
OSLO, Norway – The Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) has sanctioned use of the semisubmersible Songa Encourage for well activities at Statoil’s Norne, Alve, and Norne satellite fields in the Norwegian Sea.
Norne, where the FPSO is based that hosts production from these fields, is connected to well templates on the seabed in a water depth of 380 m (1,247 ft).
Produced oil is tanker-offloaded, with the gas piped to Kårstø in Rogaland County and on to Germany. Production at Norne started in 1997.
Alve, 16 km (9.9 mi) to the southwest and the other satellite fields are tied back to the Norne via subsea facilities.
Under the sanctioned program, theSonga Encourage will drill wells for production or injection, perform well overhauls and other intervention work, and plugging.
Aker BP has PSA’s consent to remove the emergency response vessel that currently serves the Alvheim field close to the North Sea median line with the UK, around 260 km (161 mi) west of Stavanger.
Alvheim too was developed via an FPSO and subsea wells, and started operations in 2008. Oil from this and other satellites is exported via tanker while the gas is exported by pipeline to St Fergus in eastern Scotland.
Aker BP wants the Alvheim field to be included inthe area contingency planning for the Sleipner-Utsira area, location for the company’s recently onstream Ivar Aasen field, hence its request to dispense with the currently dedicated response vessel.
01/27/2017
