Subsea 7 installs tech for improved access to reserves at Norwegian Sea project

Subsea 7 has completed the installation of electrical heat traced flowline (EHTF) for Aker BP’s Ærfugl phase 2 project in  the Norwegian Sea.

The installation of the 16″/10″ EHTF was carried out by Seven Vega, one of the company’s reel-lay vessels designed to install complex rigid flowlines including pipe-in-pipe (PiP) systems.

The electrical and fibre optical system on the second phase of the Ærfugl project was hooked up to the topside of Skarv FPSO and commissioned.

The EHTF PiP, developed together with ITP Interpipe, is said to improve access to reserves and long tie-backs, where transport of fluid is needed over longer distances.

“With the deployment of our EHTF technology we have introduced a step-change in both field economics and production assurance”, Subsea 7 said.

As described, the system will provide active heating for hydrate mitigation with online temperature measurements for the flowline. It will rely on limited power consumption due to a high performance insulated product.

An integrated team of representatives from Subsea 7, Aker Solutions and Aker BP executed the Ærfugl project as part of the AKER BP Subsea Alliance.

To remind, Aker BP started production from the Ærfugl phase 2 project in November 2021, two years after sanctioning the project and one year after starting production from the first phase.

Following the start-up of the second phase, ahead of schedule and on budget, the entire Ærfugl field is now in production, Aker BP informed at the time.

According to the field operator, the Ærfugl field development adds five years of lifetime to the Skarv FPSO and reduces the CO2 emissions by 30-40 per cent per barrel produced.

Aker BP’s partners in the project are Equinor, Wintershall Dea Norge, and PGNiG Norway.