Valhall is an oil field in the
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
sector of the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
. Discovered in 1975, production began in 1982 and is expected to continue until 2050. Valhall is located in 70 metres of water. It produces from chalk in the Tor and Hod Formations of Late Cretaceous age. The reservoir depth is approximately 2 400 metres.
Development
The field was originally developed with three facilities (QP, DP and PCP) but now the complex consists of five separate
steel platforms that are bridge-connected. There are also two unmanned flank platforms, one in the south and one in the north, both around 6 kilometres from the field centre.
Quarters Platform (QP)
The QP was built in 1979 and started being used in July 1981. It was bridge linked to PCP. It had accommodation for 208 people. This module is undergoing deconstruction at the demolition yard in Leirvik, NOR.
Drilling Platform (DP)
The DP is situated centrally and has 30 well slots. The platform started operation on 17 December 1981 with the first covered
derrick
A derrick is a lifting device composed at minimum of one guyed mast, as in a gin pole, which may be articulated over a load by adjusting its guys. Most derricks have at least two components, either a guyed mast or self-supporting tower, an ...
. It was bridge linked to PCP.
Production Platform (PCP)
The PCP is built to process of
oil
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...
and of
gas
Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma).
A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or ...
per day. The platform is 65 metres high and weighs 21,000 tons. The oil production is piped to 2/4-J at the
Ekofisk Center and goes to
Teesside
Teesside () is a built-up area around the River Tees in the north of England, split between County Durham and North Yorkshire. The name was initially used as a county borough in the North Riding of Yorkshire.
Historically a hub for heavy manu ...
in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
. The gas is transported directly via the
Norpipe pipeline to
Emden
Emden () is an independent city and seaport in Lower Saxony in the northwest of Germany, on the river Ems. It is the main city of the region of East Frisia and, in 2011, had a total population of 51,528.
History
The exact founding date of Em ...
in
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...
. The platform also processes oil and gas that comes from the
Hod oil field.
Riser Platform (RP)
The RP (Ekofisk 2/4 G) was installed in April and June 1981. It received oil and gas from PCP through two 36.8 km long 20-inch diameter pipelines. It delivered the oil and gas to Ekofisk Tank to which it was bridge linked.
Wellhead Platform (WP)
The WP was installed in April 1996 and first oil production started in June the same year. WP has 19 well slots. A central location and spare available capacity make it possible for the Valhall complex to also receive oil and gas from several adjacent fields.
Water Injection Platform (WP)
The WIP is a
fixed steel platform, bridge linked to the existing Valhall WP. Water injection is expected to increase oil recovery from 31% to 38%. The integrated topsides has water injection facilities, seawater and produced water treatment facilities and
power generation
Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from sources of primary energy. For utilities in the electric power industry, it is the stage prior to its delivery ( transmission, distribution, etc.) to end users or its sto ...
. The platform-based drilling rig's configuration allows for drilling and maintenance of wells on the new platform (24 wells total) and on the existing WP platform (19 wells total). The IP has integrated connections to the onshore operating centre.
Valhall Flank Development (VFD)
The VFD consists of two identical unmanned
wellhead
A wellhead is the component at the surface of an oil or gas well that provides the structural and pressure-containing interface for the drilling and production equipment.
The primary purpose of a wellhead is to provide the suspension point and ...
platforms each equipped with 16 drilling slots and located about 6 km (one to the North and one to the South) from the existing Valhall Facilities where wellstreams will be processed.
Initially about eight wells will be drilled from each platform. There is room for future water injection at either wellhead platform. The two wellhead platforms are powered from Valhall and monitored from the existing Valhall facilities via a
fiber optic
An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparency and translucency, transparent fiber made by Drawing (manufacturing), drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a Hair ...
cable
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
.
Drilling commenced on the South Flank by West Epsilon in October 2002 and continued until August 2003 when it moved to drill the North Flank. The South Flank started production 8 May 2003. While the North Flank came on stream 7 January 2004.
New field centre
Due to subsidence of the field centre and a desire to operate more efficiently a new field centre is being developed for Valhall. The new field centre will probably extend the life of the field to 2050.
Production & Hotel (PH) Facility
The PH facility is an integrated processing and accommodation platform, with a power from shore module and bridges linking it to the existing Valhall platforms. The topsides weigh 18,500 tonnes, the jacket structure weighs 8,400 tonnes and there are 180 single cabins on the platform.
Front-end engineering and design work was undertaken by Fabricom and
Wood Group
John Wood Group plc, commonly known as Wood, is a British multinational engineering and consulting business with headquarters in Aberdeen, Scotland. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange as well as being a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index ...
, with the deck constructed by Heerema.
The ten-storey living quarters module was constructed by SLP Engineering, with Alphastrut supplying a lightweight aluminium support system.
The steel jacket substructure was fabricated and installed by
Kværner
Kværner was a Norwegian engineering and construction services company that existed between 1853 and 2005. In 2004, it was amalgamated to the newly formed subsidiary of Aker ASA - Aker Kværner, which was renamed Aker Solutions on 3 April 20 ...
.
The steel jacket for the PH platform was installed in June 2009, with the main deck and living quarters module added in July 2010 and the power from shore module becoming operational in June 2011.
Production from the PH platform commenced in January 2013 and is expected to reach 65,000 barrels of oil a day.
See also
*
List of oil fields
This list of oil fields includes some major oil fields of the past and present.
The list is incomplete; there are more than 25,000 oil and gas fields of all sizes in the world. However, 94% of known oil is concentrated in fewer than 1500 gi ...
References
Norwegian Petroleum Directorate: Facts 2012 - Valhall
External links
Valhall in Aftenbladet Energi Interactive Energy MapBP Norway field information{{Resources in Norway
BP oil and gas fields
North Sea oil fields
Oil fields in Norway