VIDEO: Norway’s largest offshore jacket touches the seabed

Statoil has informed that last week the jacket for the Johan Sverdrup riser platform was installed by Thialf crane vessel owned by Heerema Marine Contractors (HMC).

The jacket sailed away towards its offshore location in the North Sea off Norway on July 23. It weighs 26,000 tonnes and is the largest on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS), Statoil said on Monday.

The jacket is stretching 140 meters from the seabed, where it covers an area measuring 94 times 64 meters. It is attached to the seabed by 24 poles weighing more than 9000 tonnes in total.

The first phase of the Johan Sverdrup field development will consist of four installations, including a utility and accommodation platform, a processing platform, a drilling platform and a riser platform, as well as three subsea water injection templates.

“This is a special milestone for us, because it is the first visible sign of the Johan Sverdrup field. I am happy that the installation has been carried out safely and fully in line with the plan. We are now looking forward to the next steps of this industrial adventure and the long line of major operations awaiting us. We have already done a lot of work on and below the seabed, and in the time ahead we will gradually become more visible above the sea surface as well,” says Kjetel Digre, project director for Johan Sverdrup.

Head of transport and installation on Johan Sverdrup Thor Kråkenes has followed the installation of the jacket that was delivered by Kværner Verdal.

“The execution of the work has simply been a feat of engineering. It took a lot of good work and detailed planning to prepare the careful lowering of the jacket onto the seabed without any unforeseen incidents,” says Kråkenes.

Statoil said that the topside is scheduled for installation next year, and production from the field is to start at the end of 2019. Plateau production is estimated at 40% of NCS oil production. Expected field life is 50 years and the ambition is a world class recovery rate of 70%. Recoverable resources are estimated to be between 2 and 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Statoil is the operator of the Johan Sverdrup development with a working interest of 40.0267 percent. The license partners are Lundin Norway, Petoro, Aker BP, and Maersk Oil with 22.6, 17.36, 11.5733, and 8.44 percent interests, respectively.