Offshore safety body clears Prosafe flotel for Johan Sverdrup work

Norwegian oil major Statoil has been given consent by the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) to use the Prosafe-owned Safe Zephyrus flotel at the Johan Sverdrup field off Norway. 

The PSA said on Wednesday that the consent applied to the use of the Safe Zephyrus for the accommodation of personnel during the completion phase from May 2018 to May 2019.

Statoil awarded Prosafe a contract for the provision of the Safe Zephyrus back in April 2017.

Under the contract, the Safe Zephyrus will support Phase 1 of the Johan Sverdrup hook-up and commissioning project in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.

When the contract was initially signed the duration was not fixed, as Statoil had three scenarios available for nomination in early August 2017.

The three options were either a 12-month firm period from late 2Q 2018, or a 12-month firm period from late 3Q 2018 with four months of options, or lastly a five-month deal firm from late 2Q 2018 plus six months of options and four months firm from 2Q 2019 plus four months of options.

The value of the contract firm period was announced to be between $51 million and $53 million including fuel, mobilization, and demobilization depending on the scenario nominated.

The Safe Zephyrus flotel is a type GVA 3000E and was supplied by Jurong Shipyard Pte Ltd of Singapore in 2015. The unit has a capacity of 450 persons in individual cabins. It is owned and operated by Prosafe, registered in Singapore, and classified by DNV GL.

Statoil also received consent to use parts of the riser platform on the Johan Sverdrup field. The riser facility is the first of four facilities to be installed at the Johan Sverdrup field center in the first phase of the field development (phase 1).

The consent applies to the use of the riser facility for commissioning of equipment and an area in the installation phase.

The various facilities and installations for phase 1 will be made ready and commissioned for use in the period from 2Q 2018 until production start-up.

Johan Sverdrup

Johan Sverdrup is one of the five largest oil fields on the Norwegian continental shelf. The field is being developed in several phases. The total resources at the field are estimated to between 2 and 3 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Phase 1 consists of four platforms which make up the planned field center for Johan Sverdrup. Phase 1 is expected to start up in late 2019 with production capacity estimated at 440,000 barrels of oil per day.

Phase 2 is expected to start up in 2022, with full field production estimated at 660,000 barrels of oil per day. Peak production on Johan Sverdrup will be equivalent to 25% of all Norwegian petroleum production.

Concept decision for Phase 2 was made in 2017, and the selected concept consists of another processing platform (P2), modifications to the riser platform and subsea wells.

In related news, Statoil on Thursday awarded letters of intent for the Johan Sverdrup phase 2 project to a joint venture of Aker Solutions and Kvaerner and to Aibel.

The JV’s part of work is related to modifications of the riser platform and the field center for the Johan Sverdrup development and Aibel’s for the construction of the processing platform topside for phase 2 of the development.

Offshore Energy Today Staff