Offshore staff
STAVANGER, Norway – Statoil (OSE:STL) has recommended a timeline for joint power supply from the Norwegian mainland to four fields in the Utsira High region of the North Sea.
This involves installation in 2017 and power deliveries from 2018. Compared with a development with offshore power production, the savings in offshore emissions from the four fields could be about 1 MM metric tons/yr (1.1 MM tons/yr) of carbon dioxide (CO2), assuming an overall consumption for the fields of about 250 MW.
According to the company, that timeframe would facilitate studies of the optimal location of a distribution platform for power, and provide a better basis for final design connected to planning for Johan Sverdrup. This giant field and its facilities would have the greatest power needs.
The study of the electrification solution for the Edvard Grieg, Ivar Aasen, and Dagny fields started in 2010. However, the discovery ofJohan Sverdrup changed the scope.
Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy initiated the program, which Statoil is leading, backed by operators Lundin and Det norske oljeselskap, and the various other field licensees. It comprises technical studies, concept solution, and assessment of commercial solutions for electrification.
A key element of the program is to refine a concept for a joint distribution platform for the Utsira High. The plan calls for concept selection in 4Q 2013, leading to an investment decision the following year by a joint ownership.
The various fields have different start-up times during the period 2015-2018. Installation of a distribution platform in 2017 and start-up of power deliveries the following year in 2018 should help nail down a comprehensive electrification solution from the outset.
Johan Sverdrup, with the largest need for power, is due to start up in 2018, but its final power need figures have not been defined. The base case, however, is to draw power from a joint distribution platform.
Edvard Grieg, Ivar Aasen and Dagny all have designs that would favor electrification from the start-up of the distribution platform, Statoil adds.
Regarding Dagny, the licensees plan to pre-invest in equipment to facilitate power from land, with only one gas-operated turbine installed on the platform for power generation. However, it will only be used until power from land becomes available.
Thereafter, the gas turbine will be part of a back-up solution needed to ensure power for Dagny supply when parts of the power from land facility undergo maintenance, or in the event of an unplanned shutdown.
The licensees in Edvrad Grieg have also committed to pre-invest in equipment, with two turbines due to be installed on Edvard Grieg serving this field and Ivar Aasen (to be connected via a dedicated power line). When power from land becomes available in 2018 one turbine will be shut down on the Edvard Grieg platform.
“An area solution entails looking at the big picture, and Statoil believes in a joint distribution platform for the Utsira High,” says Øystein Michelsen, executive vice president for development and production Norway.
Kårstø is the recommended tie-in point on the Norwegian west coast for the power grid on land.
Investments in the scheme are currently estimated at close to NOK 10 billion ($1.7 billion).
11/05/2012
