By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, July 25 -- The Gassled partnership plans to invest 6.5 billion kroner to upgrade electrical and instrumentation systems at the Karsto gas plant north of Stavanger. Work is slated to begin in third quarter 2008 and complete in 2012.
Gassco AS is operator of Gassled and the Karsto plant on behalf of the partners, handling the transportation system and plant system operations. Statoil is the technical services provider.
"The upgrade mainly concerns replacing older with more modern equipment," said Knut Barland, senior vice-president of Statoil's natural gas processing and transport group. Mechanical modifications and upgrades also will take place to improve regularity, accessibility, and technical safety.
"This is an extensive operation that will take place in many areas of the plant and a number of systems simultaneously," Barland said. "Our main focus will be [health, safety, and the environment] receiving top priority throughout the project period."
More than 30 fields are tied back to Karsto via pipeline, and about 30% of Norway's annual gas exports exit from the Karsto plant. The work will be tailored to planned turnarounds to minimize production disruption, said Arnulf Ostensen, Gassco's vice-president for technical operations.
MW Kellogg Ltd., London, has been awarded a 1 billion kroner contract for KEP2010 engineering work. MW Kellogg has been conducting the pre-engineering since June 2006, with Sorco AS and Norconsult AS serving as subcontractors.
Gassled, established Jan. 1, 2003, is a joint venture of oil and gas companies on the Norwegian continental shelf that own the Norwegian gas transport infrastructure.
Ownership interests related to the old transportation systems. Statpipe, Zeepipe (including Europipe I and the Zeepipe terminal), Franpipe (including the Dunkerque terminal), Europipe II, Oseberg GT, Vesterled, Asgard Transport and Norsea Gas (Norpipe) were all transferred to Gassled.
Gassco AS is operator of Gassled, head of the transportation system joint venture, and system operator.
