A contract worth roughly NOK 100 million to connect pipelines for Statoil’s Kvitebjørn development in the North Sea has been awarded by the group to Saipem UK. This job embraces the tie-in of risers from the field platform to the Kvitebjørn gas and oil pipelines, and tie-in of the latter to Troll Oil Pipeline II in 330 metres of water. Work is due to be done in the summer of 2004 with the aid of remotely operated tools which eliminate the need for divers, says pipeline manager Jostein Breivik in the Kvitebjørn project. The Kvitebjørn Oil Pipeline runs for 90 km from the platform to Troll Oil Pipeline II, which terminates in turn at Statoil’s Mongstad crude oil terminal north of Bergen. The gas pipeline runs for 150 km and will also carry output from the Visund field to the Troll Gas processing facilities at Kollsnes near Bergen. With its production platform installed in 191 metres of water, Kvitebjørn is due to start delivering gas on 1 October 2004.
