By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Feb. 7 -- Snøhvit operator Statoil ASA recommended Spanish fabricator Dragados Offshore SA to the eight-member Snøhvit partnership Wednesday for a 1.450 billion kroner contract to construct and install the project's gas liquefaction plant on a prefabricated barge.
Egil Gjesteland, Snøhvit project director, said Dragados made the best bid "based on quality, price, ability to deliver, and (on) health, safety, and the environment."
The LNG plant, which will liquefy natural gas from the isolated giant Snøhvit gas field in the Barents Sea off northern Norway, will be installed on a prefabricated barge currently under construction at Spain's Izar Fene shipyard, Statoil said.
Snøhvit is the first LNG export development planned in Europe. Snøhvit field, discovered in 1984, lies in 300-340 ft of water. Natural gas from the field—and near-by Askeladd and Albatross fields—will be piped through a 160 km multiphase pipeline to Melkøya, an island at the entrance of the shipping channel into Hammerfest, Norway, where the LNG liquefaction plant will be located. Germany's Linde AG is the main contractor.
Dragados will install the processing plant at its Cadiz facility, after which the barge containing the plant will be towed in 2005 to Melkøya. As many as 21 wells from the three fields are expected to produce a total of 5.75 billion cu m/year of LNG (OGJ, Nov. 25, 2002, p. 38). Production is set to start in 2006.
Statoil Chief Executive Olav Fjell said total investment in the Snøhvit development is now 45.3 billion kroner (OGJ Online, Dec. 12, 2002).
Operator Statoil holds a 22.29% interest the development. Other partners are Petoro AS 30%, TotalFinaElf Exploration Norge AS 18.4%, Gaz de France Norge AS 12%, Norsk Hydro Produksjon AS 10%, Amerada Hess Norge AS 3.26%, RWE Dea Norge AS 2.81%, and Svenska Petroleum Exploration AS1.24%.
