Offshore staff
(Azerbaijan) - BP's current development of the deepwater portion of the Gunashli field off Azerbaijan will necessitate artificial lift, to counter depressurization arising from production in other parts of the reservoir. Gas injection is not feasible, so water injection has been commissioned, the aim being to lift oil recovery by more than 200 MMbbl.
For this scheme, BP, through the Azerbaijan International Operating Company, has contracted NKT to supply around 17 km of 8-in. water injection flexible flowlines. The design of the flowlines has been challenging, according to NKT, due both to the 570 bar design pressure, and to physical restrictions on the design imposed by limited access through the narrow waterways to the Caspian Sea.
The subsea water injection system will feature six water injector wells gathered into two manifolds. This will also be the first use both of subsea technology and of flexibles in the Caspian, NKT claims.
In a similar technical vein, the company has also been contracted by Framo Engineering to provide two flexible jumpers for CNR International (UK)'s Columba E water injection project, for delivery in January on coils.
This development involves filtering and boosting raw seawater into the Columba E Terrace field via a Framo dual pumping station. The 47-m jumpers will connect the pumping station to Columba E's water injection trees. The flexibles will be a smooth bore, Flex3-type design.
Also in the UK North Sea, the company is supplying 6-in. water injection jumpers to SonSub/Saipem for Nexen's Buzzard development. The jumpers are being designed to withstand severe corrosion conditions that seawater can induce in flexible pipes. They will be equipped with super duplex carcass and sour steel armoring wires.
The scope of supply comprises 658 m of 6-in. pipe, which will be cut into 16 jumpers of individual lengths from 21 to 60 m. Sonsub/Saipem has agreed so far to take seven out of the planned jumpers, with the remainder stored as one uncut pipe by NKT until required.
11/15/05
