Statoil and partners have secured consent from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate for start-up and operation of new subsea wet gas compressor and umbilical at the Gullfaks Sør satellite field in production license 050 offshore Norway.
The compression station is one of the two subsea gas compression projects being developed by Statoil in Norway. The first subsea compression project in the Åsgard field secured Norwegian Petroleum Directorate consent in July.
Norwegian Petroleum Directorate principal engineer Astri Fritsen said: "Technology development is a key to improved recovery and extended lifetime for fields on the Norwegian shelf.
"For Gullfaks, this gas compression means extended lifetime and an increase in the gas recovery rate from Gullfaks Sør Brent from 62% to 74%."
Gullfaks Sør field has been developed using 12 subsea templates which are tied back to the Gullfaks A and C facilities by underwater pipelines.
The compressor station and the umbilical are installed at the Gullfaks C platform in the North Sea.
According to the NPD, the compressor station and the umbilical, which are scheduled to commence production by October, are designed to push the well stream up from templates D, L, M, and N.
To allow realization of additional resources in the greater Gullfaks area, the compression station will increase the gas and condensate reserves from the reservoirs on Gullfaks Sør Brent and Rimfaks Brent.