Production of the first elements on the Johan Sverdrup Field in the North Sea project has begun, Statoil said in a news release. On June 29, Kværner metal worker Stian Myrvold Green started up the machine that will cut the steel for the riser platform jacket on the field.

The steel jacket now being built at Kværner Verdal will weigh 26,500 tonnes, Statoil said.

“Not only will we route the land-based power through the jacket, we’ll also be controlling the subsea water injection and exporting the field’s oil and gas from it,” Kjetel Digre, senior vice president for the Johan Sverdrup development project, said in the release. “In addition, we’re also preparing to tie in future phases of the Johan Sverdrup field development to the riser platform. In building this jacket, we’re in fact making preparations to take in as many as 56 conduits.”

The steel jacket for the riser platform will be transported and installed on the field in 2017. Due to its size, the jacket will be shipped out to the field on the Heeremas H-851 barge, which is 260 m long. In order to receive the barge, the quay at Kværner Verdal is being upgraded, according to the release.

In addition, the 246-tonne template for the wells, to be pre-drilled on the field from March 2016, is being produced at Vlissingen in The Netherlands, the release said. The well template will be installed on the field in the course of the summer/autumn 2015.

The Johan Sverdrup partnership consists of Statoil, Lundin Norway, Petoro, Det norske oljeselskap and Maersk Oil. The partnership has recommended that Statoil be operator for all the field’s phases.