Shell’s Ormen Lange Field to get boost from two new subsea compressors

SLB reported Aug. 28 that two of its OneSubsea compressor stations recently came online at the Ormen Lange Field, the second largest gas field offshore Norway.

SLB says that the subsea compressor stations will help Shell unlock 30 Bcm to 50 Bcm of additional gas reserves for export to Europe, enabling an unprecedented increase in recovery from the field of up to 85%.

The project also set a record for the deepest installation of a subsea compression system ever in water depths more than 900 m below sea level, according to SLB. The gas will be delivered to Shell’s Nyhamna gas plant 120 km away—setting a record for the longest step out ever.

The Ormen Lange system uses two compression stations, each containing two compression modules. Each compressor can provide up to 50-bar differential pressure, configured in parallel for a large volumetric flow capacity. 

The 32-MW subsea multiphase compression system will use onshore variable speed drives (VSDs) located 120 km away, eliminating subsea VSDs or topside alternatives to improve project economics.

SLB says that its subsea multiphase compressor is the world’s first and only true subsea wet-gas compressor. The company says that with this design, the subsea compression system can operate with the unprocessed multiphase well strea —including condensates, produced water, and mono ethylene glycol—with liquid fractions ranging from 0% to 100%.