GE, Halvorsen TEC Secure Johan Castberg Order from Statoil

Statoil has selected a consortium led by GE Water & Process Technologies and Halvorsen TEC to supply a complete seawater sulfate removal unit (SRU) for production wells in Statoil’s Johan Castberg project in the Barents Sea.

The Johan Castberg project is situated about 100 kilometers north of the Snøhvit field in the Barents Sea.

Engineers from GE Water & Process Technologies and Halvorsen TEC are responsible for front-end engineering design (FEED) work in close cooperation with Aker Solutions and Statoil.

Work is expected to go out in 2017, when the final investment decision for the project is planned to be carried out.

This is GE’s first order of its seawater sulfate removal technology for the offshore oil and gas industry and the first time GE and Halvorsen TEC have been jointly awarded a complete SRU order.

“We are pleased to collaborate with GE on the SRU project to help Statoil protect its wells in the Johan Castberg field,” said Svein Helge Pettersen, managing director of Halvorsen TEC.

Heiner Markhoff, president and CEO—GE Water & Process Technologies said: “Sulfate removal is important to help ensure that production assets remain free of barium and strontium scale, which would precipitate if untreated seawater is injected. GE is teaming up with Halvorsen TEC to showcase how SRU technology can help Statoil and other oil and gas producers reduce their costs in increasingly tough-to-treat conditions.”

The SRU will allow Statoil to inject approximately 2,000 cubic meters per hour of seawater at less than 20 parts per million of sulfate content and less than 20 parts per billion of oxygen. The SRU’s injection capacity will be 1,188 cubic meters per hour at 6 bar.

In addition to the core technologies, GE is providing the process guarantee for the entire unit as well as an OnBoard service package with remote monitoring of the entire seawater injection plant.

The FEED portion of the project will last six months. Equipment delivery is expected to take place mid-2019, while the first oil is expected to be produced in 2022.

The project is divided into two phases: Aker will oversee FEED work during phase one, and the FPSO equipment will be fabricated and delivered during phase two.