Offshore staff

Skinfaks and Rimfaks fields in the Tampen area of the North Sea will be combined into a subsea facility and tied to Gullfaks C platform, if work this summer follows schedule, says Statoil, operator.

The underwater tie-in to Gullfaks C requires shutdown of two central templates. A total of 26 subsea connections will be performed in an operation involving several vessels.

The vesselNormand Cutter has started removing existing pipe coils and replacing them with four new ones to connect a tie-in manifold to the existing subsea facility. This work is by Saipem UK.

Installation of four pipelines is scheduled for July with contgrol cable installation to follow. Work on the 26
subsea connections is scheduled for completion in autumn.

Rimfaks is scheduled to come on stream in December 2006. The licensees are Statoil, 61%; Petoro, 30%; and Hydro, 9%.

6/21/06