By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, May 18 -- Statoil let a 2.3 billion kroner contract to Samsung Heavy Industries for the construction of the topsides for the Valemon platform on Blocks 34/11 and 34/10 off Norway, west of the Kvitebjorn field.
Statoil submitted the development and operations plan to Norway's Ministry of Petroleum and Energy in October with first production targeted for 2014 (OGJ Online, Oct. 26, 2010).
Well 34/10-24 discovered the field in 1985.
Statoil noted that Valemon is one of its largest development projects off Norway. It estimates that the field contains 206 million boe in complex reservoirs with high pressure and temperature.
The resources lie at about a 4,000 m in Middle Jurassic sandstones of the Brent Group and Lower Jurassic sandstones in the Cook formation.
Valemon will have a fixed steel platform for separating gas, condensate, and water as well as partial processing and export of unstabilized condensate and rich gas.
“The platform and transport solution for Valemon forms a good basis for developing other oil and gas fields in the area,” says Ivar Aasheim, senior vice-president for Statoil’s field development business cluster.
The Samsung contract covers engineering, procurement, and construction of the topsides and living quarters, as well as an option for mating offshore of the topsides with the steel jacket.
The Grenland group in Sandefjord, Norway, and Technip in Malaysia will perform the engineering work. The Grenland group will also construct the flare boom. Hertel Marine in the Netherlands will build the living quarters.
Statoil previously let contracts for the construction of the steel platform jacket to Heerema Vlissingen BV; transport, and installation of the jacket and topsides to Heerema Marine Contractors Nederland BV; Saipem for topsides installation; and pipeline design to IKM Ocean Design.
Statoil plans to transport the gas from Valemon through an existing pipeline between Huldra and Heimdal, which is a hub for onward transport to the European gas markets.
It will pipe the condensate to Kvitebjorn for stabilization and then to the Mongstad refinery near Bergen.
A submarine cable will supply Valemon with electricity from Kvitebjorn.
Conditional on government approval of the Valemon unitization agreement, operator Statoil will have a 64.275% interest in the field and its partner shares will be Petoro AS 30%, Enterprise Oil Norge AS 3.225%, and Total E&P Norge AS 2.5%.
Photo from SABIC Limburg BV.
US Department of the Interior.
