Njord A Towed to Kværner Stord for Renovation
The Njord A platform being towed by the KL Sandefjord. (Photo: Thomas Sola/Statoil)
The Statoil Njord A platform is towed to Kværner Stord on Thursday 25 August in order to be reinforced and renovated for production beyond 2030. Oil and gas production on Njord should in fact have ceased a long time ago. When the field was developed, it was scheduled for production until 2013.
“We have been able to recover more of the reserves than originally expected, and following new discoveries and the Snilehorn development, field production will continue for at least ten more years. This is a big and important project and Statoil is working closely with the partners and suppliers to succeed,” says Snorre Grande, Project Director for the Njord Future project.
The commercial basis for the Njord A renovation still requires production from Njord and Hyme, where 177 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) are identified remaining to be produced. Scheduled for tie-in to Njord, the Snilehorn discovery contains 66 million barrels. These two fields combined will provide more recoverable resources than the Gina Krog field, which is currently under development on the Norwegian continental shelf. To enable Njord A to receive these resources, the hull must first of all be reinforced. Extensive renovation on board the platform will also be made. Njord has been on stream for 6821 days and 54 wells have been drilled, including exploration wells. A total of 167 million barrels of oil and 41 billion standard cubic metres of gas have been produced since the start-up almost 20 years ago.
The Njord A platform comes home to Kværner Stord, where it was constructed in 1997. At that time the yard was called Aker Stord. In April this year Kværner Stord was awarded the framework contract for renovation of the platform and pre-engineering will continue throughout this year. The framework contract also includes an option for the platform renovation work. The Njord Future project will also be prepared for further phasing-in of third-party fields. A new and fortified Njord platform may furthermore become a field centre in the future for new discoveries in the area.
Production on Njord and Hyme was shut down in June and preparations for the Njord A tow-in have continued through the summer, including tasks such as securing of wells and facilities before the actual disconnection.