VIDEO: Statoil installs its first unmanned wellhead platform

Norwegian oil major Statoil on Friday launched a video showing the installation of its second offshore platform this summer, the Oseberg H.

Statoil said that it installed one large and one small platform in the North Sea this summer.

The large platform is the Mariner A located on the UK continental shelf, with a topside of 38,000 tonnes. Offshore Energy Today covered the installation of the platform last week.

The small one is the Oseberg H platform on the Norwegian continental shelf. The platform is Statoil’s first unmanned wellhead platform with a topside weighing just 1,100 tonnes.

Statoil’s Plan of Development and Operation (PDO) for Oseberg Vestflanken 2 was approved by Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy in June 2016. The contract for the engineering, procurement and construction of the unmanned wellhead platform was awarded to Heerema Fabrication Group (HFG) and the contract for the transport and installation of the platform went to Heerema Marine Contractors (HMC).

HFG held a steel-cutting ceremony for Oseberg H at its Zwijndrecht yard in June 2016.

Only 16 months after the contract was awarded, the jacket and topside sailed on the river from Heerema in Zwijndrecht to Rotterdam and on to the North Sea.

The platform is a part of the Oseberg Vestflanken 2 development. It was installed in the Norwegian part of the North Sea some eight kilometers northwest of the Oseberg Field Center.

Oseberg Vestflanken 2 is the first of three planned phases for developing the remaining reserves in the Oseberg area located some 130 kilometers northwest of Bergen. The Oseberg Vestflanken Development will consist of an unmanned wellhead platform with 10 well slots. Two existing subsea wells will also be reused. Production start is scheduled for the second quarter of 2018.

Offshore Energy Today Staff