By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, July 6 -- Petromar, a subsidiary of Bouygues Offshore SA and Angola's Sonangol, has completed the first phase of a project to provide bundles for the Girassol field umbilicals and flowlines project.
TotalFinaElf SA is developing Girassol field off West Africa (OGJ Online, June 28, 2001). It recently installed two 1,300 m long bundle riser towers, and a third is planned.
The first phase of the Petromar bundles contract covered the fabrication and launching of eight bundles, which will link the subsea wells to the riser towers. The bundles are between 1,100 and 2,900 m long.
The bundles consist of a 30-in. outer steel tube containing two 8-in. production lines enclosed in syntactic foam. The foam was developed for the project to insulate the flowlines from the high seabed pressure (130 bar at a depth of 1,300 m) and very low temperatures (3° C).
The eight bundles were fabricated at Petromar's base in Soyo. Seven bundles have been towed 220 km to the field. The eighth will be installed when the last riser tower is in place.
Angolan state-owned oil company Sonangol holds the concession for Block 17, which contains Girassol. Operator is TotalFinaElf with 40%, ExxonMobil Corp. 20%, BP PLC 16.67%, Statoil AS 13.33%, and Norsk Hydro AS 10%.