Oil company Aker BP has been given a permission to remove an emergency response vessel from the Alvheim field in the North Sea, off Norway.
Norway’s offshore safety regulator, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), said on Friday it has given its consent to Aker BP to remove the vessel from the field as the company wants the Alvheim field to be included in the area contingency planning for the Sleipner-Utsira area.
To remind, Statoil, ExxonMobil, and Gassco received consent from the PSA in early January to establish and participate in area contingency planning in the Sleipner-Utsira area off Norway, which involves cooperation on emergency preparedness between several facilities and fields with the aim of sharing maritime and airborne emergency response resources. These resources may include one or more emergency response vessels and SAR helicopters.
Participating in such contingency planning means that rescue vessels for individual fields would be removed.
After the removal of its separate emergency response vessel, Aker BP will be included in the area contingency plan.
Aker BP is the operator of the Alvheim field in the North Sea, close to the boundary with the UK shelf, around 260 kilometers west of Stavanger. The field was developed using a floating production unit and subsea wells.
The greater Alvheim area comprises of the discoveries Alvheim (Kneler, Boa, and Kameleon) and the fields Vilje, Volund, and Bøyla. The oil from the fields is shipped from Alvheim by tanker, and the gas is exported by pipeline to St. Fergus in Scotland. Production began in 2008.
Recently, Aker BP began production from Viper-Kobra a field that constitutes part of the Alvheim field which is tied back to the Alvheim FPSO.
Offshore Energy Today Staff