Final Preparations Underway on the Goliat Platform
Thursday 18 June 2015
Final preparation of the Goliat platform, the world's largest and most sophisticated circular FPSO, is well under way in the Barents Sea.
With more than 600 people now working offshore at the Goliat field, activity levels are high in order to prepare for production start-up later in the summer. While the FPSO is fully manned, with a floatel attached to it for extra bed capacity, offshore installation vessel Normand Pioneer is pulling risers into the platform and the rig Scarabeo 8 is performing production drilling.
"We have seen significant and steady progress at the field so far", says Andreas Wulff, communication manager at Eni Norge.
The world's largest cylindrical platform – a so-called floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facility – arrived at the Goliat field location in the Barents Sea on May 7th, after a short stop-over in the fjord outside Hammerfest. The mooring operation has been completed, and the subsea power cable designed to supply the field with electricity from the mainland has been connected and commissioned.
Safety paramount
"Safe operations have the highest priority. Work is progressing at a satisfactory rate, despite challenging weather conditions", explains Wulff.
Preparations for production start-up
The risers and umbilicals that were previously installed on the seabed are now being hooked-up, enabling the subsea facilities to be fully connected to the processing facility on the platform. The next phase involves comprehensive commissioning and testing of equipment and the production facilities, combined with preparatory and completion operations prior to bringing the field safely on stream.
Extra capacity
A floating hotel, the Floatel Superior, has been brought into service to make sure that there is sufficient manpower for the offshore installation phase. The use of a floatel with extra accommodation capacity has been a key part of the installation plan, and enables the preparations for production start-up to be speeded up.
Nearby the Goliat platform, the drilling rig Scarabeo 8 is progressing with the drilling campaign. Five oil producing wells, two gas injection wells and one water injector well have already been completed, ahead of schedule. Drilling will continue after production has started in order to complete a total of 22 wells.
The Goliat field is planned to come on stream later in the summer of 2015.