Karsto expansion in home stretch

Aug. 1, 2000
Statoil AS�s ambitious 10.4 billion kroner project to expand its Karsto treatment facility north of Stavanger will soon be ready to receive gas from the giant Asgard field in the Norwegian Sea, according to the oil company. Aastein Austerheim, manager for commissioning and operation of the Asgard facility at Karsto, said some 10% if system-testing remains to be carried out, while start-up activities are 50% complete.


LONDON�Statoil AS�s ambitious 10.4 billion kroner project to expand its Karsto treatment facility north of Stavanger will soon be ready to receive gas from the giant Asgard field in the Norwegian Sea, according to the oil company. Aastein Austerheim, manager for commissioning and operation of the Asgard facility at Karsto, said some 10% if system-testing remains to be carried out, while start-up activities are 50% complete.

The development project is designed to double gas reception and treatment capacity at the plant, which can handle roughly 64 million cu m/day, making it the world�s third largest producer of liquefied petroleum gases.

Because original plans for first gas to arrive from Asgard B platform on Sept. 1 were scuttled by �strikes and delays,� noted Austerheim, gas flowing through the Statpipe trunkline has been used to commission the Asgard systems.

The expansion project also incorporates a fractionation plant, a 600,000 tonne/year ethane separation and treatment plant, as well as two large rock caverns able to store more than 250,000 cu m of liquefied propane at a temperature of �42� C.