Tyrihans pumps complete and ready for testing
The subsea raw seawater injection (SRSWI) pumps that will be installed at StatoilHydro's Tyrihans field in the Norwegian Sea, were yesterday transported from Aker Solutions' facility at Tranby to Horten, where they will undergo installation testing over the next month. Once installed, the record-breaking pumps are expected to increase oil production from the Tyrihans field by 10 percent.
The pumps, which are utilising Aker Solutions' LiquidBoosterTM technology, will be installed in 270 metres water depth approximately 31 kilometres from the Kristin platform. Both the tested pump duty of 2,7 megawatt and the 31 km step-out represent new world records for subsea pumps.
Aker Solutions supplies a complete system for injection, consisting of three subsea pump modules, including one spare pump module, complete power system, structure and manifold and a comprehensive condition monitoring system. The pumps will suck in 14 000 cubic metres of untreated seawater each day, and inject this into the reservoir. The pumps drive the water into the ground between the oil reservoirs Tyrihans North and South. When this is combined with gas injection, optimal pressure support is obtained in the reservoir and a higher degree of oil recovery and production is achieved. It is expected that the pumps alone will help increase production by 19 million barrels of oil during the field's lifetime.
"We have developed a robust technology for the subsea raw seawater injection pump system for Tyrihans. The high power capacity of our boosting system will enable us to break the world record for long step-out distance and produce a large amount of otherwise unrecoveable oil. We are very pleased to be working with StatoilHydro on this groundbreaking project," says Svenn Ivar Fure, senior vice president for Trees / Processing & Boosting, Aker Solutions.
Tyrihans is the largest StatoilHydro-operated field off Norway which remains to be developed. It holds 176 million barrels of oil and 30 billion cubic metres of gas. Production is due to start in 2009.
StatoilHydro has a 58.8 per cent interest in the Tyrihans field, while its partners are Total with 26.51 per cent, Eni with 7.9 per cent and ExxonMobil with 6.75 per cent.
Photo://StatoilHydro
