Statoil SA has let contract to Aker Solutions for front-end engineering and design of a novel spar platform for Luva gas and condensate field in the Norwegian Sea, which has been renamed Aasta Hansteen.
Aker Solutions says the structure, called a belly spar, will be the world’s largest spar platform, the world’s first with condensate storage capacity, and the first spar offshore Norway.
It will have a hull length of 193 m and a draft of 170 m. It also will be the first production platform on the Norwegian continental shelf with steel catenary risers, according to Henning Ostvig, head of front-end and technology at Aker Solutions.
The spar will be moored in 1,300 m of water with a set of polyester lines, housing accommodation facilities and processing equipment to handle production from wells completed subsea (OGJ Online, Jan. 30, 2012).
Bob Tippee has been chief editor of Oil & Gas Journal since January 1999 and a member of the Journal staff since October 1977. Before joining the magazine, he worked as a reporter at the Tulsa World and served for four years as an officer in the US Air Force. A native of St. Louis, he holds a degree in journalism from the University of Tulsa.
