Offshore staff
STAVANGER, Norway — Equinor has connected the Sleipner Field center, the Gudrun platform and other associated fields in the Norwegian North Sea to power from shore.
All installations in the Utsira High region are now supplied with power from shore, cutting emissions in the area by an estimated 1.2 MM metric tons/year of CO2.
One of two gas turbines on the Sleipner A platform will gradually be shut down as systems transition increasingly to running on the shore-sourced power. The other gas turbine will be on standby as a backup power source during a run-in phase.
But over the longer term, Sleipner will technically be able to operate fully on shore-supplied power.
A 28-km-long power cable from the Gina Krog platform to the Sleipner Field center was powered up on March 24 (the Gina Krog platform itself derives power from the nearby Johan Sverdrup Phase 1 development).
The Gudrun platform was connected at the same time via an existing cable to Sleipner.
“With power from shore, we can develop new discoveries and resources from low-emission production, and gas export from the area can be maintained for a long time to come," said Kjetil Hove, Equinor’s executive vice president for Exploration & Production Norway. The company calculates overall investments for the project at NOK1.08 billion ($101 million).
In 2020, the Sleipner partners awarded Aibel an EPCIC contract for the associated modifications at the Sleipner Field center, with NKT contracted to manufacture and install the power cables. As subcontractor, ABB has installed high-voltage equipment and updated the power control system.
The Sleipner Field has captured, injected and stored in the subsurface about 20 MM mt of CO2 since early 1996.
The Utsira High power grid encompasses platforms at Johan Sverdrup, Gina Krog, Sleipner, Gudrun (all operated by Equinor), Edvard Grieg and Ivar Aasen (both operated by Aker BP).
04.04.2024
