First Barents Sea Oilfield Development Emphasizes Oil Spill Preparedness

Abstract

This article, written by Editorial Manager Adam Wilson, contains highlights of paper SPE 156773, ’Implementation of the Oil Spill Preparedness for the Goliat Offshore Oilfield Development—The First Oilfield Development in the Barents Sea,’ by Erik Bjornbom and Ole Hansen, Eni Norge; Frode Engen, Statoil; and Sjur W. Knudsen, Norwegian Clean Seas Association for Operating Companies, prepared for the 2012 SPE/APPEA International Conference on Health, Safety, and Environment in Oil and Gas Exploration and Production, Perth, Australia, 11-13 September. The paper has not been peer reviewed. The Goliat field will be the first offshore oil field in the Barents Sea and the world’s northernmost offshore oil field. The field is in the southwestern part of the Barents Sea, close to the coastline in an environmentally sensitive area. The implementation of the Goliat oil spill preparedness plan will introduce new technologies and methods, the results of projects and initiatives developed in cooperation with the Norwegian Clean Seas Association for Operating Companies (NOFO). This will give an increased oil spill response capability, especially for the coastal zone. Goliat Field Development The Goliat field is an oil and gas discovery in the southwestern Barents Sea. Goliat contains two main oil-bearing reservoirs (Realgrunnen and Kobbe) with 28×106 std m3 of recoverable oil reserves. In addition, the field contains 8.8×109 std m3 of gas. The field is approximately 85 km from the city of Hammerfest in the county of Finnmark and approximately 50 km southeast of the Snøhvit offshore gas field (Fig. 1). The water depth in the license area is between 248 and 436 m. The Goliat field is to be developed by 22 subsea wells drilled from eight tem-plates linked to a circular floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) facility (Fig. 2). The Goliat development represents one of the largest industrial projects ever undertaken in northern Norway. The well stream will be processed on the FPSO, and the oil will be exported to market using tankers. During the first phase, produced gas will be reinjected to provide pressure drive. This will, in addition to the injection of seawater, attain the total pressure drive necessary to achieve optimal production of the resources. The facility will run on power supplied from land combined with an onboard power-generation system. In 2009, the Norwegian parliament approved the plan for development and operation for the Goliat field, with seven specific conditions that the project needs to fulfill. For the first time in Norway, one of the specific conditions was related to oil spill preparedness: “In the light of the particular challenges in the northern areas and the Goliat field’s proximity to the coast, oil spill contingency strategies must be assigned very high priority. The operator shall carry out a detailed evaluation of the infrastructure within the area of influence of potential polluting emissions and discharges from the Goliat field. The operator shall implement measures designed to consolidate the oil spill contingency strategies in the affected municipalities … .”