Statoil to Spin Bit at Visund Sor

- Statoil to Spin Bit at Visund Sor

Monday, July 25, 2011
Petroleum Safety Authority Norway

Statoil has received consent to use the Ocean Vanguard mobile facility in the northern part of the North Sea.

The consent relates to drilling of three production wells on Visund Sør. The plan is to partially complete all three wells, 34/8-V-4 BY1H/BY2H, 34/8-V-3 H, 34/8-V-1 BY1H/BY2H, with Ocean Vanguard.

Visund Sør is located approx. nine kilometers southwest of the Visund field, and approx. 125 kilometers from land, Værlandet in Askvoll, Sogn og Fjordane.

The earliest possible start date for the operation on Visund Sør is in the beginning of August 2011. The operation has an expected duration of 300 days.

Oil & Gas Post

Promote Your Page Too
LINK

Statoil Gets OK for Development of Visund South Fast Track

- Statoil Gets OK for Development of Visund South Fast Track

Friday, June 10, 2011
Statoil

The Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has approved the plan for development and operation for Visund South. Production is planned to start up in the third quarter of 2012, and a subsea template is already on its way out to the field.

Visund South, which is located 10 kilometers from both the Gullfaks C and Visund A platforms in the North Sea, is a subsea development consisting of a template with four slots, from which three wells will be drilled and tied to Gullfaks C for processing.

"With the approval of the ministry, this first project in a series of fast-track developments is well underway, just four months after the PDO was submitted in January. This also means we're one step closer to our goal of halving the time taken from discovery to production," said Statoil senior vice president of Norwegian continental shelf field development Ivar Aasheim.

In the course of June everything will set for the installation of the seabed template, so that the project can commence drilling in August.

The template is the first one built that has its basis in a standard catalogue for subsea equipment, which was compiled in collaboration with the suppler industry. This catalogue will be used for the forthcoming fast-track developments.

Visund South will be installed on the field in conjunction with the Marulk development, which Statoil is carrying out now on behalf of operator Eni.

Oil & Gas Post

Promote Your Page Too

FMC Technologies Lands Subsea Contract for Statoil's Visund Nord Field

- FMC Technologies Lands Subsea Contract for Statoil's Visund Nord Field

Monday, June 06, 2011
FMC Technologies Inc.

FMC Technologies has signed an agreement with Statoil for the manufacture and supply of subsea production equipment to support the Visund Nord offshore development. The contract has a value of approximately $50 million in revenue to FMC Technologies.

Visund Nord is a fast-track oil and gas field located in water depths of approximately 1,150 feet (380 meters) in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. FMC's scope of supply includes the manufacture of two subsea production trees, one manifold and associated subsea and topside control systems. The equipment will be based on a standard subsea solution designed by FMC for Statoil. The integrated structure and wellhead systems will be delivered in the spring of 2012 and final deliveries will occur in the first quarter of 2013.

"Visund Nord is the fifth fast-track project we have been awarded from Statoil in the last two years," said Tore Halvorsen, FMC's Senior Vice President of Global Subsea Production Systems. "We are pleased that Statoil continues to recognize our strengths and capabilities in supporting their tie-back and fast-track developments."

Oil & Gas Post

Promote Your Page Too

Statoil Charges Ahead at Fast-Track Proj. Visund South

- Statoil Charges Ahead at Fast-Track Proj. Visund South

Friday, May 27, 2011
Statoil

Statoil's first fast-track –project – Visund South – is moving ahead as planned. The seabed template has commenced its journey out to the field located south of Gullfaks in the North Sea.

"We submitted the plan for development and operation of Visund South in January. Now, four months later, we've built the first seabed template for the first fast-track project. We've come a long way towards cutting the time from discovery to production in half," said Kjetel Digre, who is responsible for project implementation in Technology, Projects & Drilling.

The Visund South seabed template was placed on a barge at Grenland Group's yard in Tønsberg last week. It will be installed on the field between the Gullfaks C and Visund platforms in June.

Visund South is expected to come on stream in 2012.

The template is the first to have been built from a standard catalog for subsea equipment.

This will form the basis for the continuing development and use of the standard catalog in the fast-track portfolio.

"We've been working closely with the supplier industry to develop standard equipment for this part of our field development portfolio. This means that we can start to build equipment more quickly and develop smaller finds more efficiently," said Halfdan Knudsen, who heads up the fast-track portfolio on the NCS.

It has taken less than a year to build the Visund South structure from the signing of the contract for subsea equipment with FMC.

Subsea 7 will carry out the actual installation on the seabed.

Visund South field installation will take place at the same time as that on the Marulk development, which Statoil is carrying out on behalf of operator Eni. This will mean increased efficiency and cost savings for both projects.

Statoil's high health, safety and environment (HSE) standards are fully integrated at all fast-track project development stages.

"HSE integration at all fast-track development stages is crucial to our success. I believe that all of our efforts to standardize and industrialize field developments through the fast-track process will bring us a predictability that will impact safety in a positive way," said Digre.

Oil & Gas Post

Promote Your Page Too

Statoil temporarily suspended production at Njord and Visund

Statoil temporarily suspended production at Njord and Visund

11 April 2011
Scandinavian Oil and Gas

Oslo. Production on the Njord field in the Norwegian Sea has been temporarily suspended as a safety precaution due to internal damage to flexible risers. The damage was detected during a scheduled inspection.

Statoil has also found it necessary to conduct special investigations at Visund, and this installation will therefore also be shut down today.

In the autumn of 2010, faults were discovered on some of the risers on the Njord A platform. An extraordinary inspection programme was therefore initiated. The inspection was performed visually by means of video camera that was sent down the risers.

Suspended production Risers are pipes that carry oil and gas between the seabed and the installation. They are constructed of multiple layers of plastic and steel.

The current challenges are limited to a specific type of riser technology.

Internal damage of this type does not threaten the structural integrity of the risers, but over time it will reduce resistance to leakage. The risers are therefore immediately removed from operation when damage is detected.

'Damaged risers will be shut down until they have been repaired or replaced. The rest will be shut down until they have been inspected and found satisfactory,' says Jannicke Hilland, Head of Joint Operations.

Njord has been shut down since 1 April, whereas Visund will be shut down today. The shutdown results in suspended production on the fields. The total field production for Njord is some 70 000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe), whereas the production on the Visund field totals about 50 000 boe. The inspection is still in progress, and the production will be phased in as the risers have been inspected and approved.

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) and the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) have been informed of the matter.
Other installations Equivalent risers are in use also on other installations on the Norwegian continental shelf: Veslefrikk, Snorre A and B, Norne, Åsgard A and B and Glitne are Statoil-operated fields belonging to this category. On these installations, however, the risers are connected to a pipeline system on the seabed which reduces the risk of damage.

There have been no known incidents or observations in the operating period that suggest damage to risers here.

Risers on all installations are subject to continuous monitoring and routine inspections in keeping with applicable inspection programmes.

Statoil had a meeting with the PSA this afternoon, describing the riser challenges. The company has also appointed a taskforce to identify actions that solve the operating challenges that the involved risers present. The taskforce addresses challenges across the Statoil group.