Statoil has commenced the construction of a landfall tunnel at Kollsnes near Bergen to receive the gas pipeline from the Kvitebjørn field in the North Sea. An improved landfall solution has led to considerable cost savings for the project.
The new solution means that the pipeline will be installed on the seabed closer to land than planned and involves the construction of a 400-metre landfall tunnel to Storholmen west of the gas terminal at Kollsnes, reports Jostein Breivik, project manager for the pipelines in the Kvitebjørn development. By choosing this option the project is saving around NOK 175 million.
In the course of the summer months in 2003 a laying barge will lay the pipeline from the Kvitebjørn field to Kollsnes and pull it through the tunnel to the terminal.
The original plan was based on extending the existing landfall tunnels for the pipelines to Kollsnes. This solution would require an extra 1,400 metres of tunnel and two kilometres of pipeline.
The Kvitebjørn project is on schedule. The platform deck with drilling package is about 60 per cent complete. The jacket is almost finished and will be installed on the North Sea field in September this year. The deck will be lifted into place in March 2003.
The Kvitebjørn field will supply gas from 1 October 2004. Gas and condensate will be transported in separate pipelines to Kollsnes and the Mongstad refinery respectively for further treatment.