Installation of the remaining 22,000 tonnes of subsea equipment for phase II of Statoil's Gullfaks satellite project�including 10 subsea templates, flowline bundles, spool pieces, and protective frames�is in the home stretch on the seabed at the Norwegian North Sea field, the operator reports.
With 62% of the project now complete, the total bill for Gullfaks phase II, which built in the cost of development work, drilling, and the new gas export line from Gullfaks A and C to the Statpipe trunkline, looks likely to come in at 6.8 billion kroner�some 300 million kroner less than the original estimate, according to project director Harald Vandbakk,
"We still face a number of challenges, but the level of activity in the project is on the way down," said Vandbakk. "That means we're well placed in relation to the planned start of gas deliveries on Oct. 1, 2001."
Phase II, part of a larger plan at Statoil to extend the producing life of the main Gullfaks field, covers recovery of gas with associated oil and condensate from the Brent reservoir in Gullfaks South, and is due to come on stream in October 2001.
Statoil hopes to recover some 50 billion cu m of gas from the Gullfaks South and Rimfaks satellites between 2001-2015 via two templates with a total of eight well slots, remotely operated from Gullfaks C. A ninth well will be drilled from template D, which forms part of Phase I.
Production will be treated on the A and C platforms, which have been modified to receive the wellstream from Gullfaks South�before being piped to Statoil's Kårstø gas treatment plant and on to consumers in continental Europe.
