As the operator of the Fram Vest field development in the North Sea, Norsk Hydro today awarded Norwegian fabrication yard Aker Stord a contract valued at NOK 500 million (USD 55 million) to do modifications on the Troll C platform for tie-in to Fram Vest.
The contract entails project engineering, purchasing and construction of a module weighing 800 metric tons, installation of the unit, as well as necessary modifications on the existing process unit on Troll C.
Fram Vest lies on production license 090 and is some 20 kilometers north of the Troll C platform. It is at a water depth of about 360 meters. Fram Vest will be developed with two subsea well templates and four wells.
The well templates will be connected to the Troll C platform with two flowlines (a dedicated gas injection line and production line) and a control cable. The wellstream from Fram Vest will be sent to a three-phase separator on Troll C and further transported through new fiscal metering stations on the Troll C facility for additional processing.
The plan for development and production of Fram Vest was approved by the Norwegian authorities in March. The production start is planned for October 2003 and plateau output is estimated at more than 60,000 barrels of oil per day. Combined development investments are estimated at NOK 4 billion (USD 440 million). Total recoverable reserves are estimated at 106 million barrels oil and 8 billion cubic meters gas.
Shareholders in license 090 are operator Hydro (25 percent), ExxonMobil (25 percent), Statoil (20 percent) and the state's direct financial interest (30 percent).