North Sea Gudrun Platform Officially Opened

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - The Norwegian Prime Minister has officially opened the Gudrun oil and gas platform in the North Sea.

Gudrun is the first platform on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) to be operated by Statoil ASA (NYSE:STO) (Stavangar, Norway) since the Kristin platform opened in 2005. Prime Minister Erna Solberg told attendees at the opening: "The oil industry is the mainstay of our business community and will remain so for decades to come. There are 230,000 Norwegian jobs directly or indirectly related to the industry".

The recoverable reserves on Gudrun are about 184 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) and the platform already produces 30,000 barrels per day. Gudrun was first discovered in 1975 but as a high temperature-high pressure field, there was the need for new drilling technology -- one of the key reasons why the reserves were left for such a long time.

The project came on stream on time and under budget, Statoil confirmed, citing greater global competition as the key reason.

Statoil CEO, Helge Lund, commented: "Gudrun has proven that we are able to take our industry into a new era with global competition and local value creation. Gudrun is a good example of how we manage to realise projects by combining new field developments with existing infrastructure. This is good value creation that helps maintain activity and extends the life of a wide range of offshore fields and facilities".

Gudrun's jacket was delivered by Kværner Værdal (Verdal, Norway) in mid-Norway and the living quarters by Apply Leirvik at Stord, in western Norway. The topside was provided by Aibel (Stavanger, Norway) with sub-supplies from Thailand, Poland and from Haugesund in Western Norway while the heli-deck was constructed in China.

The Gudrun platform combines new field development with existing pipelines and facilities. Oil and gas from the platform is processed on the Sleipner A platform which is located 50 kilometres (km) further south. The gas is then piped to Europe, while the oil is piped along with the Sleipner condensate to the Kårstø processing complex north of Stavanger for shipment.

Statoil plans to open the Valemon platform later this year. It will be followed by the Gina Krog and Johan Sverdrup platforms on the Utsira High section of the North Sea seabed.

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