Gassco has recommended that oil from the Edvard Grieg and Ivar Aasen discoveries in the Norwegian North Sea is landed at the Sture terminal near Bergen.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy (MPE) commissioned pipeline operator Gassco in February to assess infrastructure solutions for oil from future developments in the Utsira High area.
This work has been conducted in close dialogue with the licensees in the Edvard Grieg, Ivar Aasen and Johan Sverdrup discoveries as well as with the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.
“We’ve assessed whether a collective transport solution for Utsira High fields could be realised,” explains Thor Otto Lohne, Gassco’s head of business development and finance. But installing a system of this kind to come into operation during 2015 wouldn’t be appropriate for the development of these discoveries.”
The company recommends that oil from Edvard Grieg and Ivar Aasen is piped via the existing Grane oil pipeline to the Sture terminal in Øygarden local authority. That would require a new pipeline to be laid from Edvard Grieg and tied into the Grane facility. Plans call for the latter and Ivar Aasen to come on stream in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
Work on assessing various infrastructure solutions for oil from Johan Sverdrup will continue until a development concept for the field is chosen as planned before the end of 2013. Based on expectations about the volume of production from Johan Sverdrup, Gassco considers a new pipeline to Sture or Mongstad further north to be the most relevant solution for this field. Plans call for it to come on stream in 2018.
Gassco’s recommendation to the MPE is supported by the licensees in the above-mentioned discoveries.
[mappress] Press Release, November 06, 2012; Image: Statoil