A piece of pioneering technology will greet Norwegian finance minister Kristin Halvorsen today, 21 September, when she performs the official inauguration of the Kristin field.
This Statoil-operated gas and condensate field, which lies at the southern end of the Halten Bank in the Norwegian Sea, is characterised by high reservoir pressure and temperature.
Norwegian finance minister Kristin Halvorsen arriving at the Kristin platform 21 September. (Photo: Øyvind Hagen)
At 910 bar and roughly 170°C, these values are the highest for any field so far developed on the Norwegian continental shelf.
“This project has been technologically demanding,” acknowledges Eileen Buan, operations vice president for Kristin.
“We’ve mastered the challenges presented by developing a reservoir with high pressure and temperature which lies almost 5,000 metres under the seabed.”
Kristin is the world’s first reservoir with such extreme conditions to be produced by subsea installations. Statoil saw from the start that a hands-on approach was needed to achieve close collaboration between the various specialist teams involved.
Very challenging reservoir properties have demanded the development of new technology to control and recover Kristin’s resources in a cost-effective manner.
The field has been developed with 12 production wells in four subsea templates, tied back to a semi-submersible production platform.
Nine wells are highly deviated to ensure the required volume of output and to enhance value creation. Four wells remain to be completed, which presents a challenge now that production has begun.
On stream since 3 November last year, Kristin is currently producing roughly 10 million cubic metres of gas per day with good reliability, Ms Buan reports.
Daily production capacity from the field is 125,000 barrels of condensate and just over 18 million cubic metres of rich gas.