A compression project costed at roughly NOK 1 billion on Statoil’s Sleipner West field in the North Sea has been given the go-ahead by the licensees this week.
The first contract has also been awarded today, 28 June, to the field development arm of Kværner Oil & Gas.
Worth NOK 350 million, this covers modification of field installations and incorporates an option for tie-back of the Alpha North structure to the Sleipner T platform.
The work will be carried out by the Stavanger department of Kværner Oil & Gas and is due to start immediately, with completion set for the end of 2004.
Kværner has also provided conceptual and pre-engineering services to the project.
Sleipner West needs increased compression capacity to combat declining reservoir pressure. Rather than build a separate compression platform, existing installations will be used.
To make the best possible use of resources, Statoil is planning to develop Alpha North — the northern part of the field — as part of the compression project.
An Alpha North scheme has been costed at roughly NOK 2 billion, and approval of this project is expected in early 2002.
“The need for more compression capacity and possible production from Alpha North were outlined in the original plan for development and operation,” says Aoued Kaddour, head of the compression project.
“The overall solution selected for further development of the field is the best in terms of health, safety and the environment as well as technical and financial considerations.”
He says that the project offers major environmental gains, with carbon dioxide emissions more than halved by comparison with installing a new compression platform.
Statoil is not submitting a new development plan, since an application to approve changes to the original scheme has just been approved by the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.