The jacket for Statoil's Huldra platform in the North Sea is due to be installed this week after being completed by the fabrication yard.
Built at Aker Verdal north of Trondheim, the 150-metre-high steel unit weighs 5,200 tonnes and will be freighted to the field on a barge.
Once at Huldra, it will be lifted by Saipem S-7000 – the world's largest crane ship – and positioned on the seabed in 125 metres of water.
This operation is weather-dependent, reports acting project manager Ove Sembsmoen. But he expects the jacket to be in place by next week.
Drilling of three production wells is scheduled to start on Huldra during August from the Mærsk Gallant jack-up.
While the wells are being drilled, the platform topsides will be completed at the Kværner Rosenberg yard in Stavanger for transport to the field next March.
Huldra is due to start producing gas and condensate in August 2001, and its platform ranks as Statoil's first unmanned installation.
The field will be remotely-controlled from the group's Veslefrikk facilities, which are also intended to receive and process the condensate. Huldra gas will be piped Norsk Hydro's nearby Heimdal platform.
Statoil's partners in Huldra are Total, Conoco, Petro-Canada and Svenska Petroleum