By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Oct. 4 -- Gassco AS on Oct. 1 began gas deliveries from Statoil ASA-operated Sleipner and Troll fields in the Norwegian North Sea to Easington in the UK after opening flow through the 600 km southern leg of the new Langeled pipeline.
This marks the completion of the first stage of the 1,200-km submarine gas pipeline, the cost of which currently is estimated at 17 billion kroner—about 3 billion kroner below budget.
"We will complete all pipelaying on the northern leg this week, which means we'll manage to finish ahead of the winter season," said Leif Solberg, Langeled project director.
"The project has progressed on schedule," he added. "What remains now is subsea connections and testing on the northern leg until next summer."
The northern leg, due to start up in 2007, lies in 360 m water as far as Sleipner East field (OGJ Online, Sept. 18, 2006, Newsletter). It is designed for an internal pressure of 250 bar, corresponding to water 2,500 m deep, a record for Norway's gas transport system.
The Langeled system will have a total capacity of 20 billion cu m/year, 1/5 of Britain's annual gas requirements. This supplements the 12 billion cu m/year Vesterled system, which transports gas from the BC Hydro-operated Heimdal platform to St. Fergus in Scotland.
