Statoil, Subsea 7 and others are making strides at the Aasta Hansteen Field in the Norwegian Sea as those involved in the deepwater project continue checking off tasks from the to-do list.

The pipelines, risers and spoolers have been installed and hooked up to subsea templates and umbilicals. Having been pressure-tested, the pipelines also have been prepared for production. In addition, the mooring lines have been installed on the seabed, Statoil said in a news release updating progress at the deepwater, harsh environment development, which has a water depth of 1,300 m (4,265 ft).

Per Rusås, project director for Aasta Hansteen, commended Subsea 7 for doing a “great job” in this year’s campaign. Subsea 7 is responsible for engineering, procurement, installation and construction (EPIC) of the 18-km (11-km) flowlines and four steel catenary risers, EPIC of rigid spools from flowlines to manifolds as well as for the SPAR mooring anchors. The company’s work scope also included installing the umbilical system, manifolds and mooring lines among other responsibilities such as flowline and umbilical tie-in and mooring line hookup.

The project also will mark the first time Statoil will use BuBi mechanically lined pipes, which will be supplied by Subsea 7, for corrosion protection. The pipes include liner pipers and steel catenary risers.

The platform is scheduled to arrive in 2018.

“When the platform arrives, the risers that are currently in wet storage on the seabed will be pulled up by the vessel and connected to the platform,” Helge Hagen, project manager for the Aasta Hansteen subsea, umbilical, risers and flowlines project, said in the release.

The project, which develops the Luva, Snefrid and Haklang reservoirs, includes subsea wells tied back to a spar platform. Plans are for natural gas to be exported via Polarled flowline to Nyhamna.

—Velda Addison

Offshore