Den norske stats oljeselskap AS has agreed to join Conoco Inc. in construction of an 830,000 metric ton/year methanol plant in mid-Norway.
Statoil's interest will be 80%, with Conoco holding the remaining 20%. The Norwegian state company will be operator and responsible for marketing and sales.
The plant will use gas feedstock from Norske Conoco's Heidrun oil and gas field in the Haltenbanken area of the Norwegian Sea.
Without an outlet for Heidrun associated gas, Conoco would have had difficulty in winning Norwegian government approval for the development project based on the world's first concrete hull tension leg platform.
Conoco will present separate plans for the methanol plant and Heidrun field development to Norway's Ministry of Petroleum and Energy this summer.
Approval from Storting (parliament) is expected by yearend.
That would put Conoco on course to place Heidrun on stream in 1995. The field, with reserves of 750 million bbl of oil and 1.7 tcf of gas, will have a peak oil flow of 200,000 b/d.
Heidrun lies in 1,150 ft of water about 165 miles offshore.
PLANT DETAILS
The methanol plant will require 72 MMcfd of gas and absorb the entire associated gas production from the field. Heidrun will be able to meet the methanol plant's gas demand beginning in 1996.
Statoil said the plant will meet 15-20% of western Europe's methanol demand. The region currently imports about 60% of its requirements, and the volume of imports is increasing.
The plant will be Norway's first large scale use of natural gas. All existing gas production is exported.
Plant site will be at the landfall of a 20-24 in. gas pipeline from Heidrun. Two sites are competing for the landfall, and Statoil said a decision on the preferred option will be made in late fall.
The concrete hull TLP will have a design life of 50 years and act as a regional gathering station for gas production from other fields on Haltenbanken.
The unit will contain a 5,000 metric ton regional process module and have six spare riser slots for incoming lines from other fields. The field will require 49 wells, nine of which will be drilled before the TLP arrives.
Crude will be exported by tanker.
Several concepts are under consideration, including a custom built, turret moored floating storage and offloading vessel with a capacity of 1.5 million bbl. It would be on station about 2 miles from the TLP and connected by a 16 in. oil transfer line.
The alternative is a concrete oil storage tank on the seabed linked to a floating tanker buoy by two flexible risers.
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