GE to Upgrade Subsea Control Systems for TVCM
03 July 2009
GE Oil and Gas has been awarded a contract worth more than USD70m (GBP43m) by Statoilhydro to upgrade subsea control systems for the Tordis Vigdis Controls Modification (TVCM) project.
The solution will incorporate GE's Vetcogray Semstar5 next-generation subsea electronics module.
The TVCM project will be the first globally to deploy Vetcogray Semstar5 and has the key objectives of higher subsea reliability, extended service life and improved environmental monitoring.
The next-generation Vetcogray Semstar5 subsea electronics modules are being developed and manufactured at GE's Nailsea facilities in Bristol, UK, along with the Vetcogray Modpod subsea control modules, and will be shipped to Norway for offshore installation in 2010 and 2011.
The TVCM project will further benefit from the newly upgraded GE test and assembly facilities at Dusavik, Stavanger, in Norway, with the development of intervention tooling mainly being carried out from the Dusavik site.
Manuel Terranova, senior vice-president of the subsea product platform at GE, said: 'We recognise the importance of this new technology developed for Statoilhydro as a breakthrough concept for brownfield enhancements and see great leverage in applying the concept further worldwide.' The scope of the contract will be executed under the Subsea Production Systems (SPS) frame agreement previously awarded to GE by Statoilhydro in 2007.
Statoilhydro's Tordis and Vigdis oilfields are located in the North Sea, west of Norway on a water depth of about 200m.
The Vigdis oil field lies in block 34/7 in the Tampen area of the Norwegian North Sea and came on stream in 1997.
In addition to the main structure, this field comprises the Borg North-West and Vigdis East formations.
These began producing in 2003 and 2004 respectively.
Vigdis has been developed with subsea installations tied back to the Snorre A platform 7km away for processing.
Gas separated from the main Vigdis structure is injected into the Snorre field, while gas from Borg North-West and Vigdis East is piped from Snorre A via the Statpipe/Norpipe system.
Stabilised oil is transported by pipeline to Gullfaks A for storage and export.
The Tordis oil field lies in block 34/7 in the Tampen area of the Norwegian North Sea and came on stream in 1994.
In addition to the main Tordis structure, the development embraces the Tordis East (1998), Borg (1999) and Tordis South East (2001) fields.
These discoveries have all been developed with subsea installations.
The water depth is roughly 200m.
Water injection is used to maintain pressure in the reservoirs.
Oil from Tordis is piped to the Gullfaks C platform 10km away for processing, storage and export.
The former Saga Petroleum Company became the operator for license PL 089 when it was awarded in 1984.
Norsk Hydro took over operatorship after acquiring Saga in 1999.
Statoil took over operatorship on 1 January 2003 and from 1 October 2007 operation was assumed by Statoilhydro.
