The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted consent for startup of the expansion of the gas plant at Nyhamna in Møre og Romsdal County.
The expansion will allow the Ormen Lange Field in the Norwegian Sea to increase production by 25 billion standard cubic meters (scm) of gas.
The upgrade—also called Nyhamna expansion—consists of two main parts. The first, expansion of the gas plant, includes land-based compression of gas from Ormen Lange. A new compressor will maintain gas pressure at Nyhamna as pressure in the reservoir drops.
The other part includes export and process facilities for Polarled consisting of a pipeline that will transport gas from the future Aasta Hansteen Field to Nyhamna.
Polarled compression and export are scheduled to start in the autumn of 2018. Gas from the Dvalin Field—with planned startup in the autumn of 2020—will also be transported through Polarled.
The expansion will increase Nyhamna's export capacity from 70 million scm/d to 84 million scm/d. The gas will be exported via the Sleipner A Platform in the North Sea to the Easington gas terminal in northeast England.
"This is a large and important project for improved recovery, and onshore compression is the first step. The next step is compression closer to the field," said Kalmar Ildstad of the NPD. Ildstad is assistant director of development and operations in the Norwegian Sea.
The next project for increased gas production from Ormen Lange—which is at a depth of 800 m to 1,100 m– is offshore compression solutions. Shell and its partners are studying different concepts in order to utilize compression when the need occurs—most likely in the mid-2020s.
Ormen Lange was proven in 1997, and production started 10 years later. The field's lifetime extends beyond 2035, according to the release.
Royal Dutch Shell (17.81%) is the operator and the other licensees are Petoro (36.48%), Statoil (25.35%), DONG Energy (14.02%) and ExxonMobil (6.34%).
Recommended Reading
TGS, SLB to Conduct Engagement Phase 5 in GoM
2024-02-05 - TGS and SLB’s seventh program within the joint venture involves the acquisition of 157 Outer Continental Shelf blocks.
2023-2025 Subsea Tieback Round-Up
2024-02-06 - Here's a look at subsea tieback projects across the globe. The first in a two-part series, this report highlights some of the subsea tiebacks scheduled to be online by 2025.
StimStixx, Hunting Titan Partner on Well Perforation, Acidizing
2024-02-07 - The strategic partnership between StimStixx Technologies and Hunting Titan will increase well treatments and reduce costs, the companies said.
Tech Trends: QYSEA’s Artificially Intelligent Underwater Additions
2024-02-13 - Using their AI underwater image filtering algorithm, the QYSEA AI Diver Tracking allows the FIFISH ROV to identify a diver's movements and conducts real-time automatic analysis.
Subsea Tieback Round-Up, 2026 and Beyond
2024-02-13 - The second in a two-part series, this report on subsea tiebacks looks at some of the projects around the world scheduled to come online in 2026 or later.