Completion of the gas pipeline from Statoil's Huldra platform to Heimdal marks the end of the pipelaying season off Norway this year.
The group has installed 350 kilometres of pipe on the seabed in four projects between the end of April and mid-September.
This work covers the Gullfaks and Huldra gas export projects in the North Sea as well as the Norne and Heidrun lines in the Norwegian Sea.
The Lorelay laybarge owned by Allseas Marine Contractors has carried out all these assignments under a single mobilisation.
Lars Trodal, Statoil's representative for the contract, says that this coordination is very rewarding for the individual licences.
"A single mobilisation and demobilisation as well as cooperation over operational preparations have saved substantial sums," he comments.
Roughly four kilometres of line were laid daily in the most active periods, reports Odd Kristian Nøland, manager of the pipeline technology sector.
That lies roughly 25 per cent above the expected laying speed for a vessel of Lorelay's size.
"This good performance means that a new 12-metre length of pipe has been welded to the line every four minutes around the clock," says Mr Nøland.
Statoil's pipelaying operations will be reduced in scale next year, with a condensate link between Huldra and Veslefrikk as the only project currently approved for the spring of 2001.
In 1999, its record year as a pipelayer, the group installed 1,187 kilometres of line in nine projects.