By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, July 9 -- The North Sea's Visund field partners, including current operator Norsk Hydro AS and Statoil ASA, which will become operator Jan.1, 2003, plan to deliver natural gas from the field to Statoil's planned 26 million cu m/day gas processing plant at Kollsnes near Bergen, Norway.
The gas will be piped via a proposed 34-km pipeline extending from the platform to a connection with the planned Kvitebjørn pipeline, an 8.5 billion cu m/year trunkline designed to deliver gas from several North Sea fields to the Kollsnes plant (OGJ Online Apr. 11, 2001).
The 190 million euro plant will also handle gas from Troll field as well as Kvitebjørn field, which holds 52 billion cu m of gas. Visund gas reserves are estimated at 55 billion cu m. Nils Sellevold, acting operations vice-president for the Troll field group, said the Kollnes plant would be ready to receive gas in 2004.
Kvitebjørn field will begin deliveries under existing sales contracts by October 2004 (OGJ Apr. 23, 2001, p. 9), and the Visund platform in the Tampen area will be modified so that gas exports from Visund can begin in 2005.
The new gas plant will recover propane, butane, and naphtha from the gas. The liquids will then be transported via the Vestprosess pipeline to Mongstad for fractionation.