Siri oil now flows to subsea tank, not tanker

The oil from DONG Energy’s oil fields in the North Sea: Siri, Nini, Nini East, Cecilie and Stine-1, is now sent directly to the oil tank below the Siri platform. This takes place after completion of extensive repair work lasting several years.

Flemming Horn Nielsen, Country Responsible for DONG Energy’s Danish oil and gas activities, said: “It’s a milestone that we’ve resumed producing to the oil tank. The Siri repair work has been a huge project for the organisation. We were faced with a complex offshore project where we had to optimise the design and construction solutions on a regular basis. Throughout the period, our employees have delivered a fantastic job.”

The Danish Energy Agency’s final approval of the repair solution is still pending.

The background for the repair work is that DONG Energy during a routine inspection in August 2009 discovered cracks in the nose of the subsea oil tank of the Siri platform. No pollution happened but the production was shut down for five months as a safety measure and re-started January 2010 after a temporary solution had been installed.

In May 2011, the concept of a permanent repair solution was selected. Production was shut down again in July 2013, because a crack was discovered in a critical area. In January 2014, as a temporary solution, the satellite fields connected to Siri, ie Nini, Nini East and Cecilie, started producing via Siri’s processing facilities directly to a tanker.

In July 2014, Stine Segment-1 and some of the Siri wells started producing again. In September 2014, the final pipework was performed so that the oil can run into the subsea tank.