Skarv: Northern heights
Norway’s long, dramatic coastline has inextricably linked its people to the sea for centuries, with shipbuilding and fishing lying at its industrial heart.
Since the discovery of oil and gas in the 1960s, that link has continued to help the nation prosper. And with development well underway on its new Skarv project, Norway’s maritime heritage is also helping BP realize new growth.
For BP Norge, with its headquarters just outside Stavanger, the outlook is exciting. Development of the company’s first completely greenfield project since its Tambar field came onstream in 2001 is now well underway. Located some 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of the Arctic Circle and around 220 kilometres (135 miles) west of the Norwegian coast, Skarv is a gas and oil reservoir, discovered by BP in 1998.
The field’s development marks a new era of growth for BP in Norway, as Rebecca Wiles, the company’s head of country, explains: “With the redevelopment of our Valhall field and the new Skarv project, we’re investing hugely in the business and growing our production here in Norway.
For BP Norge, with its headquarters just outside Stavanger, the outlook is exciting. Development of the company’s first completely greenfield project since its Tambar field came onstream in 2001 is now well underway. Located some 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of the Arctic Circle and around 220 kilometres (135 miles) west of the Norwegian coast, Skarv is a gas and oil reservoir, discovered by BP in 1998.
The field’s development marks a new era of growth for BP in Norway, as Rebecca Wiles, the company’s head of country, explains: “With the redevelopment of our Valhall field and the new Skarv project, we’re investing hugely in the business and growing our production here in Norway.
Skarv's floating production, storage and offloading vessel
“This effectively represents a transformation for BP Norge, after some asset consolidation between 2003 and 2005. Looking forward, our strategy here is to continue to build our track record as a safe and reliable operator, while growing our resource base and production through the application of innovative technology; and investing to extend the life of more mature fields and bring our new projects, the Valhall redevelopment and Skarv development, online.”
Sanctioned by the Norwegian Parliament in December 2007, the project is making steady progress – on budget and on schedule, with a very good safety record – to meet its start-up date next year. While a complex subsea system takes shape 300 to 450 metres (980 to 1,475 feet) below the waves offshore Norway, the world’s largest-ever harshwater floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) is nearing completion in South Korea. Other key pieces of equipment are being designed and built at locations across Europe and Asia, making the Skarv project a truly global endeavour.
“All major design work is complete, and we are very much in the mainstream of construction,” says Pat McHugh, Skarv project director. “One of the challenges for the management team and me is coordinating the effort, which is physically spread from our project headquarters in Oslo, to the UK and other parts of Europe, and then into Singapore and Korea. Bearing in mind all the time zones and cultural differences, I would put communication as our top priority to ensure we achieve our ultimate objective.”
Sanctioned by the Norwegian Parliament in December 2007, the project is making steady progress – on budget and on schedule, with a very good safety record – to meet its start-up date next year. While a complex subsea system takes shape 300 to 450 metres (980 to 1,475 feet) below the waves offshore Norway, the world’s largest-ever harshwater floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) is nearing completion in South Korea. Other key pieces of equipment are being designed and built at locations across Europe and Asia, making the Skarv project a truly global endeavour.
“All major design work is complete, and we are very much in the mainstream of construction,” says Pat McHugh, Skarv project director. “One of the challenges for the management team and me is coordinating the effort, which is physically spread from our project headquarters in Oslo, to the UK and other parts of Europe, and then into Singapore and Korea. Bearing in mind all the time zones and cultural differences, I would put communication as our top priority to ensure we achieve our ultimate objective.”
Operators working in Norwegian waters are required to meet particularly high standards of design to comply with regulation. Taking these into account, alongside BP’s own safety priorities, the FPSO has been designed with a mooring system unlike any other, McHugh explains. “The hull’s structure, the turret, along with the 15 mooring lines anchored to the seabed, are designed to resist three combined eventualities: a total loss of FPSO power and use of positioning thrusters, with 100-year storm conditions, when the hull is not in its optimal position with respect to the prevailing weather conditions.
“The structural integrity of the FPSO and its mooring lines are designed to be maintained in all those circumstances. That is an unusual demand and what we have, therefore, is the highest-strength mooring system ever installed.” The commissioned vessel will set sail later this year from South Korea on its 90- day journey via the Cape of Good Hope.
Expected to arrive in Norwegian waters in early 2011, some final touches will be completed inshore, before the FPSO is towed to site, anchored and the waiting subsea elements hooked up. Minimizing the work schedule in the final months before start-up means that subsea installation is already well underway. Under the waves, Skarv provides a series of challenges for BP: those include the fishing-scarred seabed and the need to protect subsea equipment from fishing vessel activity. With the exception of ‘rock dumping’ activities to level out the undulating seabed, offshore work is virtually impossible during the harsh winters between October and April. But huge seas and high winds are liable to disrupt a work schedule at other times of year, too.
“There is no protection from the long Atlantic swells out there, when the worst of the weather passes through,” says Grahame Christian, marine installation coordinator. “The conditions are potentially wild, but the latest technology enables us to feed past weather patterns into our planning process, so we’re able to gauge a realistic assessment of likely down-time.”
The full article Skarv: Northern Heights will be available in the new edition of BP Magazine, out next week
“There is no protection from the long Atlantic swells out there, when the worst of the weather passes through,” says Grahame Christian, marine installation coordinator. “The conditions are potentially wild, but the latest technology enables us to feed past weather patterns into our planning process, so we’re able to gauge a realistic assessment of likely down-time.”
The full article Skarv: Northern Heights will be available in the new edition of BP Magazine, out next week
