Judy Maksoud
International Editor
STAVANGER, Norway -- Per Kristian Munkerud of StatoilHydro's R&D center used the Deep Offshore Technology Conference and Exhibition on Wednesday, Oct. 10, as a forum to present his company's strides toward increased oil recovery.
As one of the major subsea oil producers in the world, StatoilHydro has a goal of increasing recovery from deepwater fields to 55% by 2008, Munkerud said. He outlined a number of ways the company is working toward this ambitious goal.
One step the company has taken is the development of the MSVRegalia as part of the light well intervention campaign, which began in 2004. "We have put significant effort into developing a vessel capable of well intervention," Munkerud said.
TheRegalia was followed in 2004/2005 by the Seawell and in 2006/2008 by the Island Frontier, to be followed by the Island Wellserver in 2008.
According to Munkerud, the vessels perform a number of roles, including data gathering, perforating short intervals, zone isolation, and sampling.
Another part of the riserless light well intervention project is the composite cable, which has allowed StatoilHydro to extended reach and load. "The composite cable is an enabler," Munkerud said. It has low density, low friction, and high voltage and can manage high currents and handle 5-7 metric-ton working loads, with a break load of 14 metric tons. It has contributed to more efficient operations and has a reach nearly double that of a standard wireline cable.
Conditions offshore Norway are challenging, Munkerud says, and the work window can be quite small. StatoilHydro's investment in improved oil recovery is moving the operator toward more efficient use of its uptime.
10/10/2007
