Shell has chosen subsea compression as a concept for the third phase of the Ormen Lange field development, located 140 kilometers north-west of Kristiansund, in the Norwegian Sea.
Rich Denny, CEO of A / S Norske Shell said on Friday that Shell had evaluated a number of alternative concepts before opting for subsea compression.
“Subsea compression will result in a significant increase in what is possible to produce from Norway’s second largest gas field, by reducing the pressure near the wellheads. We have managed to reduce costs by more than 50 percent compared to the first time we considered offshore compression for Ormen Lange. This demonstrates that it was the right decision to stop the project in 2014 and look at all opportunities again,” Denny said.
Shell, and its partners Equinor, Petoro, ExxonMobil and Ineos will now choose between two remaining options for subsea compression; one for wet gas developed by OneSubsea and built on technology installed on the Gullfaks field, and a wet gas-tolerant system from TFMC, which is based on experiences from the Åsgard field. Both of these options will need power from land.
Natural gas from the deep-water Ormen Lange project meets around 20% of the UK’s gas needs.
The gas from the field arrives onshore at the Nyhamna plant where impurities are removed and then piped through one of the world’s longest subsea pipelines, Langeled, which runs about 1,200 km from Nyhamna to Easington in England.
Offshore Energy Today Staff