Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil has completed the 23km-long Tampen Link pipeline between the Statfjord field and the British sector of the North Sea. The company said that this will provide gas to Britain from the Statfjord late life project.
Statoil said that the Tampen Link ties the Statfjord field to the Flags pipeline, which runs from the Brent field in the British sector to St Fergus in Scotland.
The pipeline will be ready for use by October 1, 2007, commented Bjarne Bakken, project director. It forms part of the extensive work now being carried out on the Statfjord late life project. The new pipeline will allow late life project gas to be exported to the UK market.
In a press release, Statoil said that the late life project involves modifying three Statfjord field platforms so that they handle oil with associated gas, rather than gas with associated oil. According to Reuters, as North Sea oil reserves start to fall, many operators are starting to focus on natural gas.
Statoil said that, as a result of the modification project, the field’s life span will be extended up to 2020. Statoil and its partners in the project are investing just over NOK16 billion.
Statoil said that Statfjord late life’s additional recoverable resources are estimated at 32 billion standard cubic meters of gas, 25 million barrels of oil and 60 million barrels of condensate. The expected recovery ratio is up to 70% for oil and 75% for gas.
Operatorship of the Tampen Link will be transferred from Statoil to Norwegian pipeline company Gassco when production begins.
Statoil is operator of the Statfjord field with a 44.34% interest. The other Statfjord licensees are ExxonMobil (21.37%), Norske ConocoPhillips (10.33%), Shell (8.55%), ConocoPhillips UK (4.84%), Centrica Resources (9.68%) and Enterprise oil (0.89%).