Norway: BP Gets Green Light for Continued Use of Hod Gas Lift Pipeline

BP Norge AS has received consent for continued use of the Hod 4” gas lift pipeline until 31 December 2014.

Hod is located in the North Sea in block 2/11, 13 kilometres south of Valhall. The licensees are Amerada Hess Norway AS (62.5%) and BP Norge AS as operator (37.5%).

The field was discovered in 1974. The reserves were originally calculated to 25 million barrels. The Hod facility (photo) was installed in 1990 and production started in 1990.

Hod produces from the wellhead facility through a 12” pipeline to the Valhall Field Centre. The facility is remote controlled from Valhall 13 kilometres from wells drilled from the Valhall Flank South wellhead facility.

Hod was the first unmanned facility on the Norwegian shelf. Gas for gas lift for the wells on Hod is sent from Valhall through a 4” gas lift pipeline.

This pipeline’s lifetime was originally set to ten years. The pipeline was installed in the summer of 2000 and came online in January 2001.

31 December 2014, is the final planned date for completion of the new 6” gas lift pipeline from Valhall Flank South.

In 2003 the Valhall partners decided to build a new facility to replace the functionality of the QP and PCP facilities. The facility is an integrated production and living quarters facility (PH).

The Valhall Re-Development Project (VRD) started in 2005, and a FEED study (Front End Engineering Design) was performed by Wood Group in 2005/2006. A PDO for VRD was approved in the Storting (Norwegian parliament) in May 2007.

The PH facility’s jacket was installed in 2009 and the topside in 2010. The new facility is built for a lifetime of 40 years, and it is expected that Valhall will be able to produce until 2049.

The production from Hod will be re-routed to the new PH facility in 2011. Gas lift will continue as today from the WP facility.

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Source:ptil , July 18, 2011;