Subsea gas plant is world first
22 Sep 2015
The world’s first subsea gas compression plant has officially come online, its developer Statoil has said.
Situated off the coast of Norway on the Åsgard oil field, the new plant will add more than 300 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) over the field’s lifetime as recovery from the Midgard reservoir is set to increase by 20% to 87% and from 59% to 84% on the Mikkel reservoir.
It will also open new opportunities in deeper waters, Statoil said.
Subsea gas compression is the technology for the future
Margareth Øvrum
“This is one of the most demanding technology projects aimed at improving oil recovery,” said Margareth Øvrum, Statoil’s executive vice president for Technology, Drilling and Projects.
“We are very proud today that we together with our partners and suppliers have realised this project that we started ten years ago,” Øvrum added.
The subsea plant features a new compressor system – one for each reservoir – that has been installed in close proximity to the wellheads which substantially increases the recovery rate and life of the fields.
The subsea plant will also be more energy efficient than its topside counterparts, Statoil said, with CO2 emissions and energy consumption being “significantly” reduced over the field’s lifetime.
“Subsea gas compression is the technology for the future, taking us a big step closer to our ambition of realising a subsea processing plant, referred to as the subsea factory”, Øvrum said.
