The contract was signed by Mads Andersen, executive vice president of Aker Solutions' subsea business area, and Vidar Martin Birkeland, acting chief procurement officer at Statoil. (Photo: Ole Jørgen Bratland)
In October 2010 the Åsgard licence decided to go ahead with its concept involving gas compressors installed on the seabed, so-called subsea gas compression.
Åsgard may be the first installation worldwide to employ seabed processing involving gas compression and this represents an important technological leap in the development of fields in deep and demanding waters.
Ståle Tungesvik, direktør for Reserve- og forretningsutvikling i Undersøkelse og Produksjon Norge.
The contract for the design and construction of the subsea gas compression is the biggest contract award on the imminent Åsgard development project.
“The development of gas compression on subsea installations creates some exciting opportunities for the industry and our choice of concept has been met with great interest by Norwegian and international suppliers. We are looking forward to working together with Aker Solutions in the Åsgard development. The company submitted the best bid, amid international competition,” says Vidar Birkeland, acting head of procurement in Statoil.
The contract’s duration will be until the end of 2014. The contracts for modification, pipelines, marine operations and other major procurement items in connection with the Åsgard development will be awarded in the course of the coming year.
“There still remain large volumes both on Åsgard and in adjacent areas. Volumes that we will not be able to produce using current facilities and the existing installation. With the help of compressors we can recover 28 billion cubic metres of gas and 2.2 million cubic metres of condensate from Midgard and Mikkel. This makes Åsgard subsea compression one of our biggest projects on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS),” says Ståle Tungesvik, head of reserves and business development in Exploration and Production Norway.
This is one of the most important measure we have implemented in order to increase recovery from existing NCS fields. Subsea gas compression represents a considerable technological leap for the industry. With this technology in place we can considerably boost recovery rates and lifetimes for several gas fields.
The contract award is contingent on a positive investment decision due to be taken in the first quarter of 2011.