HOUSTON — Equinor has awarded SLB the front-end engineering design (FEED) for a 12-well, all-electric subsea production system (SPS) project in the Fram Sør Field in the Troll area of the North Sea.
According to SLB, the development should lead to fast-track wide-scale adoption of electric subsea technology. It should also establish new standards for increased operator control, subsea operational efficiency and lower offshore emissions.
Under the agreement, SLB OneSubsea will handle future engineering, procurement and construction, pending a final investment decision.
This project is the first application arising from a joint industry project that started in 2018, designed to speed up development of new electrification technology via a standardized industry solution.
Basing the design on an established standard, SLB added, supports efficient and economic scaling of subsea electrification for operators worldwide, with associated capex and opex benefits.
“Electrification is vital to the future of subsea operations in the energy transition,” said Mads Hjelmeland, CEO of SLB OneSubsea. “This technology has effectively created the IoT for subsea trees, providing operators with improved control through live performance and condition monitoring.”
The Fram Sør solution will employ SLB OneSubsea’s standard subsea tree design, upgraded with a fully electric power, control and actuation system.
The elimination of high-pressure hydraulic systems should help operators go deeper, the company claimed, improving production and making even marginal fields more economic to produce.
