Major Upgrade on Snorre

"Snorre has the largest remaining reserves of Statoil’s fields on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS). A number of extensive modifications have been carried out in recent years to make the installations more robust for increased production and an extended lifetime up until the year 2040,” said Torstein Hole, senior vice president, Operations West in Exploration and Production Norway.

“We are the NCS field carrying out most modifications in 2009-10. Total capital expenditure for Snorre in 2009 and 2010 amounts to NOK 5 billion, of which health, safety and environmental measures account for over 50 per cent,” said Hole. He adds that 2010 will be another year with a high level of activity on Snorre.

In the summer of 2010 the flotel “Safe Scandinavia” will arrive at Snorre A. The flotel will increase the field’s sleeping capacity for six months and make it possible to implement more projects and maintenance. It is primarily the accommodation quarters on Snorre that will be upgraded in the flotel period. More one-man cabins will be built and noise-reduction measures implemented.

The Snorre licence partners recently decided to replace today’s fire and gas alarm system. This will entail some $77.4m of capital expenditure.

The Apply Sørco company has been awarded the main contract for the upgrade. In addition, the project will avail itself use of the company’s frame agreements relating to operation and maintenance.

“We will get a completely revamped, modern system with a much improved coverage compared to the current one. This will make the platform’s warning system more robust and will represent a big safety improvement,” said Hole.

The project, which is very comprehensive, will continue over a three-year period until 2012.

“While the platform is in full operation, and the current warning system is operative, some 1,700 detectors will be removed and 2,000 new ones installed; 36 km of cable will be taken out and 47 km of new cables installed,” explained Hole.