ENGINEERINGNET.EU -- ”Subsea gas compression represents an important leap forward in the efforts to improve recovery and extend the producing life of several gas fields,” says Siri Espedal Kindem, Statoil’s senior vice president for technology.“
“Having implemented this technology, we are also one step closer to our ambition of moving processing facilities down on the seabed. In other words, a subsea factory.”
As a field gets older, the natural reservoir pressure decreases, and the well may need boosting in the form of compression in order to produce more gas and bring the gas up to the platform.
”Subsea compression is one of our main initiatives to enhance production from existing fields on the Norwegian continental shelf’” says Jannicke Nilsson, Statoil’s head of operations North Sea West.
The current recovery rate on the field is 62 percent. A combination of subsea compression and conventional low-pressure production in a later phase may increase this to 74 percent.
In 2009 Framo Engineering was awarded a technology development contract after a study phase in 2008 with several industrial suppliers.
Now that the technology is qualified and the concept has been matured for development, the contract will be now awarded subject to a positive investment decision.
(picture: Statoil)
BACKGROUNDER
Last year Statoil decided to pursue subsea gas compression on the Åsgard field from 2015, and the plan for development and operation was approved by the Norwegian parliament before Easter. Statoil is also involved in technology qualification for the operator Shell for a subsea compression concept at Ormen Lange.
