Gjøa Platform On Its Way
After a period of development lasting five years, the Gjøa field is approaching start-up. On Sunday 13 June the field tow of Gjøa – one of the most modern platforms built in Norway – commenced. Gjøa features innovative solutions by Aker Solutions, based on the company’s experience from more than 50 semi-submersibles. It will be Statoil‘s first floating platform supplied with power from shore. Image courtesy Statoil.
Aker Solutions has designed, engineered and assembled the platform, which will connect to five subsea templates. With a topside weight of 22.000 t and hull dry weight of 15.000 t, the new platform is ready to create value for its operators and Norwegian society in decades to come. The Gjøa deck measures 110 meters long and 85 meters wide, an area larger than a football (soccer) field. The platform’s highest point is the flare tower at 143 meters, several floors higher than Norway’s tallest building, Oslo Plaza, at 117 meters. In total, more than 500 Aker Solutions engineers have been mobilised to design the platform, from Oslo, Norway, and Mumbai, India.
Gjøa will be the first floating platform to be supplied with electricity from shore. This will reduce environmental emissions equivalent to those from 100,000 passenger cars. During the final assembly at Stord, peak manning reached 3,000 skilled operators. Key deliveries have also been made by other Aker Solutions locations in Norway, including Egersund, Verdal, Moss and Pusnes. Installation of the mooring system, transportation and installation of the Gjøa platform is carried out by Aker Solutions’ subsidiary Aker Marine Contractors.
The tow out to the field is expected to take one and a half days. Work will then start on connecting the platform to the subsea installations and the pipelines that have already been made ready. Final trials and completion work, which can only be carried out on the field, will ensue before test production of oil and gas can start. It is expected that the field will come into regular production in the fourth quarter of 2010. The field was proven in 1989 and its reserves are reckoned to amount to 82 million barrels of oil and condensate and 40 billion cubic metres of gas. Statoil is development operator for the field while GDF SUEZ E&P Norge will take over as operator when Gjøa comes on stream.