The Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) of Norway has granted permission to extend lifetime of the Gullfaks B facility and its associated pipelines.
Statoil operates Gullfaks field, which is situated in block 34/10 at Tampen in the northern part of the North Sea.
Gullfaks was developed by using three integrated processing, drilling and accommodation facilities with concrete jackets and steel decks through three phases such as Gullfaks A, B and C.
Gullfaks B was installed on the field in July 1987, while the production was started in February 1988.
According to PSA, the existing consent for use of Gullfaks B expires in July this year.
Statoil has applied for permission to extend the lifetime of Gullfaks B and its associated pipelines to 30 June 2036, in a bid to take out the remaining reserves in Gullfaks.
The consent has been granted to extend the lifetime of Gullfaks B, the 12’’ oil/gas pipeline from Gullfaks B to Gullfaks C, the 8’’ gas pipeline from Gullfaks B to Gullfaks A, 16’’ flexible oil pipeline from Gullfaks B to Gullfaks A and the 20’’ water injection pipeline from Gullfaks A to Gullfaks B.
The PSA has granted permission based on Statoil's documentation of evaluations, which addressed that the facility can continue to be operated safely and responsibly and in compliance with regulatory requirements.
Gullfaks is an oil and gas field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, which was discovered in 1978, in block 34/10, at a water depth between 130m and 230m.
The initial recoverable reserve is 2.1 billion barrel, while the remaining recoverable reserve in 2004 is 234 million barrels.