On behalf of the Sleipner licence group and the Ormen Lange licence group, Statoil has signed a contract with ABB Offshore Systems for tie-in and modification work on the Sleipner Riser platform. Awarded in competition with other contractors in the offshore market, the contract is worth about NOK 400 million.
The contract covers engineering, fabrication and installation of risers and modifications on the Sleipner Riser platform to enable the connection of Ormen Lange gas to the Norwegian gas network.
The contract is subject to approval of the plans for development and operation of Ormen Lange and for installation and operation of its gas export system. These are due to be submitted to the authorities before the end of the year. Government approval is expected in the spring of 2004.
The Ormen Lange licence group has entered into an agreement with the Sleipner licence group (PL 046) to tie into the Norwegian gas network on the Sleipner Riser platform.
Hydro is operator for Ormen Lange during the development phase. That includes all field development, the gas processing plant at Nyhamna in Aukra local authority on the coast of mid-Norway, as well as the export pipeline project.
Statoil is responsible for the planning and construction of the export pipeline in collaboration with Hydro.
The line will run from Nyhamna via Statoil's Sleipner fields in the North Sea to Easington on the east coast of England with a total length of 1 200 kilometres. Plans call for the line from Sleipner to Easington to be ready for operation in October 2006.
Located 100 kilometres north-west of Nyhamna, the field has a water depth of 800-1100 metres.
Ormen Lange is the largest gas field under development on the Norwegian continental shelf.
The planned gas export volume to the UK amounts to about 20 per cent of Norway’s gas exports and 20 per cent of UK gas market demand.
Ormen Lange is due to start production in October 2007.
Partners in the Ormen Lange licence: Norsk Hydro (17.956 per cent), Shell (operator in production phase) (17.2 per cent), Petoro (36 per cent), BP (10.888 per cent), Statoil (10.774 per cent) and ExxonMobil (7.182 per cent).