GALLERY: Johan Sverdrup processing platform en route from South Korea to Norway

Norwegian oil and gas giant Equinor has confirmed that the topside for the fully assembled and tested Johan Sverdrup processing platform is leaving the Samsung Heavy Industries’ yard in South Korea. 

As previously reported, Samsung Heavy completed the processing platform (P1) for Johan Sverdrup field development and delivered it to Equinor on Tuesday, December 18.

Announcing the sail-away, Equinor said on Wednesday that the processing platform is one of four platforms that make up the Johan Sverdrup field center in the first phase of the project. The others are the riser platform (RP) and the drilling platform (DP), installed in 2018, and the Utility and Living Quarter (ULQ) which together with the processing platform will be installed during spring 2019.

“The Johan Sverdrup project has been on a formidable improvement journey the last few years, mostly thanks to high quality in the execution phase. This has also been a defining characteristic of the delivery of the processing topside currently en route from South Korea to Norway,” says Trond Bokn, senior vice president for the Johan Sverdrup development.

“In cooperation with Aker Solutions, Samsung has delivered another high-quality topside for Johan Sverdrup according to plan and without serious incidents. Such deliveries are imperative to ensure a safe start-up of Johan Sverdrup in November 2019,” says Bokn.

Aker Solutions has been responsible for engineering and procurement management for the two topsides, while Samsung Heavy Industries has been responsible for construction of the riser platform and now the processing platform for the Johan Sverdrup field.

Equinor said that the riser topside was constructed in record time and below budget and sailed from the yard on Geoje island in February this year. The processing platform has been constructed as a complete topside, and after the actual construction phase was finalized in May this year, the platform has been subject to countless tests to complete the processing facility to the fullest extent possible before installation offshore at the Johan Sverdrup field next spring.

“Having built this as a complete topside gave us a unique opportunity to test a lot of systems that we normally wouldn’t have been able to test prior to installation offshore. This has given us a better picture of the quality of the work undertaken and helps safeguard the plan towards start-up of the field next year,” says Jill Sale, project manager for the processing platform and responsible for the Johan Sverdrup project in South Korea.

On board the world’s largest heavy-transport vessel

According to Equinor, close to 17 million working hours have been spent on constructing the riser topside and the processing topside at the Samsung yard. The processing platform is now sailing to Norway on board Boskalis Vanguard, the world’s largest heavy-transport vessel.

The topside is heading for the Kværner yard on Stord where two pedestal cranes will be mounted, and further preparations will be made, before it is to be lifted into position at the Johan Sverdrup field in one single lift by the Pioneering Spirit vessel in the spring of 2019.

“2018 has been a very busy and important year for Johan Sverdrup, involving a lot of offshore installation work – probably more installation activity in one season than for any other project on the Norwegian continental shelf before,” says Bokn.

“Both the beginning and end of 2018 have seen good deliveries from Samsung, first the riser platform that sailed away in February this year, and now we have another sail-away at the year-end. The processing platform will in many ways set the tone for 2019, as it will be the first of the last two topsides to be installed next spring.”

Equinor is the operator of the Johan Sverdrup field with a 40.0267% interest and its partners are Lundin Norway (22.6%), Petoro (17.36%), Aker BP (11.5733%), and Total (8.44%).

All images by Equinor