The start of construction of the riser platform for the giant Johan Sverdrup project offshore Norway has been marked at Samsung Heavy Industries yard in South Korea.
Johan Sverdrup, 155km west of Stavanger, Norway, is one of the five biggest oil fields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, with expected resources of 1.7-3 billion boe. The field was discovered in 2011.
The riser platform is the largest of the four platforms constituting the Johan Sverdrup field centre. It will received land-based power and will export oil and gas to onshore - Kårstø (gas) and to Mongstad (oil). The platform will be 124m-long, 28m-wide, 42m-tall, and will weigh 23,000-tonne.
Statoil expects that, during its 50 years of production, innovation and new technology will open up new possibilities for the field. In anticipation of these, more than 2500sq m of free deck space has been incorporated into the riser platform.
Construction of the processing platform (P1) for Johan Sverdrup will start during July 2016.
“As we are starting the riser platform construction we are taking another important step in delivering the Johan Sverdrup project on schedule,” says project director for Johan Sverdrup Kjetel Digre.
The preparations for the riser platform construction started already in January 2015, when Aker Solutions was awarded the contract for engineering and procurement management for the processing platform and the riser platform for Johan Sverdrup.