The Sleipner platforms in the North Sea are among the installations where turnarounds will be carried out. (Photo: Kjetil Alsvik)
Turnarounds are needed to be able to carry out required maintenance and inspections in order to maintain safe and efficient operations.
An important purpose of the turnarounds is to make platforms and installations more robust in order to improve safety and production regularity and extend their life.
Statoil also aims to make improvements to expand the interval between the turnarounds.
The work is carried out in a limited period of time, which sets high requirements on planning and work preparations by Statoil and the supplier.
Extensive effort
The planned replacement of a large heat exchanger on the Snøhvit LNG plant on the island of Melkøya in northern Norway has been postponed from the summer of 2010 to the second quarter of 2011.
A minor turnaround of a much shorter duration will be carried out on Melkøya in the third quarter of 2010.
The turnarounds’ impact on Statoil’s production volume has been taken into consideration in the guiding presented at Statoil’s strategy update on 11 February 2010.
Increasing production
In addition to improving the installations’ robustness a number of the actions included in this year’s turnarounds are in line with Statoil’s objective of improved recovery of the resources in mature fields.
Even if the turnarounds lead to production stop and income loss in the periods affected, they contribute to increased production and earnings in the longer term.
| Turnarounds are to be carried out on the following installations: Sleipner A, B and T - Snorre A and B - Troll A, B and C - Kvitebjørn - Norne - Åsgard B - Kristin - Njord - Heidrun |