Germany’s Wintershall and its partners in production license 418 (PL 418) offshore Norway have opted to move ahead with a subsea development for the Skarfjell Field in the North Sea.

“Under the proposed solution, the Skarfjell reservoir will be connected via a subsea template to the nearby Gjøa platform,” Wintershall said.

Partner Engie added, “The Gjøa concept for Skarfjell will include a new 1,000-ton topside module for handling the Skarfjell production. New risers will be installed for production, gas lift, water injection and umbilical. The tieback of Skarfjell production to the Gjøa-platform is in line with our strategy to make the installation a hub for future fields in the area and to extend the lifetime of the Gjøa facility.”

The Gjøa platform is a semisubmersible production unit that has full processing and export capabilities. It is operated with power from shore via a 100-km (62-mile) long submarine cable from Mongstad.

“We look forward to working together with operator Wintershall and the partners to further define our part of the development concept toward project sanction,” said Cedric Osterrieth, managing director of Engie E&P Norge.

Skarfjell is situated in the northeastern part of the Norwegian North Sea about 20 km (12 miles) southwest of the Engie-operated Gjøa platform and about 130 km (81 miles) northwest of Bergen.

“Based on the proposed plan, hydrocarbons from the Skarfjell reservoir would be sent from a subsea template to the Gjøa platform for processing and export,” Wintershall added.

Gjøa also would provide gas-lift services to the field and water injection for pressure support to a second template.

The majority of the Skarfjell discovery is located in PL 418 “with a possible extension into PL 378,” Wintershall noted.

The partners in PL 418 are operator Wintershall (35%), Cairn Energy unit Capricorn (20%), Bayerngas (20%), Edison (15%) and DEA (10%).

The partners in PL 378 are operator Wintershall (62.5%), Capricorn (20%) and Repsol (17.5%).

4Subsea Bags Snorre B Deal

Also in the Norwegian North Sea, 4Subsea has landed a deal to supply integrity monitor systems for six flexible risers on Statoil’s semisubmersible platform Snorre B.

The contractor said it landed the work on the back of delivering the fifth system in a row for Statoil’s Snorre A platform.

“The monitoring solution improves security and reduces risk of production downtime or riser failure. At the same time, the installation will reduce operational costs, since the need for manual inspection is eliminated,” 4Subsea said.

“Today there are daily inspections of the risers, plus quarterly offshore mobilization of engineering personnel. The new solution automates and simplifies these processes drastically, [while] reducing risk.”

The monitoring solution is based on 4Subsea’s AMOS system, which analyzes the condition, integrity and expected service life of the flexible risers. AMOS monitors the riser annulus diffusion rate, detecting early signs of riser failure, reducing risk and averting potential costly replacement of risers.

“The contract also includes added functionality developed by 4Subsea’s [R&D] department in late 2016 for measuring and trending condensation of liquid in the annulus vent gas,” the company added. “Statoil will have a system that is fully integrated with [its] control rooms at Snorre B from day one, providing quicker response time, familiar user interface for the operator, and remote monitoring and trending from onshore.”

Agility Lands Visund North Contract

Agility Subsea Fabrication has won a contract from TechnipFMC to construct an integrated subsea manifold system for the Visund North Field in the Norwegian Sea.

The work will be performed at Agility’s site in Tønsberg, Norway. The work scope “is a copy version of an earlier delivered fast-track project,” the company said.

“The integrated template structure is scheduled to be delivered during the second semester of 2017 and the manifold system during the first semester of 2018,” Agility added. “Purchasing activities will start immediately and fabrication will commence during the first semester of this year.”

Agility said it has previously delivered “a significant number of large subsea structures to TechnipFMC (formerly FMC Technologies) and have several projects under construction.”

—Steve Hamlen

Offshore