Compressor capacity on Statoil’s Troll A gas platform in the North Sea is to be boosted at a cost of just over NOK 3 billion, the licensees have resolved.
As production continues, reservoir pressure declines and the gas increasingly needs pressure support to carry it through the pipelines to the treatment plant at Kollsnes near Bergen.
Expanding compressor capacity on the platform will allow more gas to be pushed through these pipelines, explains Troll operations vice president Geir Amland.
Because this production will also arrive at Kollsnes under higher pressure, better use can be made of treatment capacity there than at present.
Two new compressors will boost daily transport capacity on the platform from 85 million cubic metres to just over 100 million.
“The aim is to have this equipment in place during 2005,” says Mr Amland. “Our assessments of market trends indicate that opportunities for selling additional gas will then be good.”
Troll A is the only Norwegian offshore platform powered from land. The licensees have resolved that this energy source will also be used to drive the new compressors.
That solution ensures zero emissions of environmentally-harmful substances from the platform and from Kollsnes.
But the upgrading requires new power cables from land to Troll A. Minor modifications are also needed at the Kollsnes plant.
In addition to Statoil with 20.8 per cent, the Troll partners are Petoro with 56 per cent, Norsk Hydro 9.78 per cent, Shell 8.1 per cent, TotalFinaElf 3.7 per cent and Conoco 1.62 per cent.