illust. courtesy Sevan Marine

Milan-based oil company Eni has decided to partly power its “round rig” floating production vessel for the Goliat oilfield in the Barents Sea by power from land, a statement at the weekend said, just as a timetable for supplier participation in the project was released.

The company has just submitted its impact assessment plan to officials for study, a part-power-cable, part offshore turbine solution has been chosen to power the circular floating production storage and offloading vessel, Sevan’s Goliat FPSO. Eni planners had once balked at the power required to operate a production turrent aboard a more conventional “ship-shaped” floating producer.

All new field developments in Norway are required to consider landward power as an option to cut down on the emissions produced by offshore generators and turbines, Norway’s worst environmental problem.

The field, in production license 229/229B lies just off northern Norway, and local politicians had lobbied for a landfall to a shore-based oil terminal. But a number of commercial considerations, including the want of a market in the north for Goliat oil, forced Eni’s planners to opt for an FPSO.

Front-end engineering and design, or FEED awards for the Goliat’s production stations is scheduled for first-quarter 2009.

The FEED for infield pipelines, risers and installation is underway and contract award is expected after a plan for development and operation is submitted to parliament, or early in 2009.

Installation work is due in the northern summer of 2010 and 2011.

Eni is one of the world’s most experienced FPSO operator and is expected to use its floater elan to run a neat operation in the Barents’ “zero-emissions” operating conditions. Pipelines were seen hampering the tying-in of varying wellstreams seen arising from Goliat’s expected satellite fields.

The environmental impact plan, meanwhile, is a key milestone for the project before a plan is submitted to authorities for the field’s operation and development. Subsea-to-FPSO and onward by shuttle tanker is now the plan for Goliat oil.

Onshore, locals expectant of an oil and gas boomtime akin to oil-town Stavangers can expect up to 200 “direct jobs” for the operations phase. “In addition, a significant number of indirect jobs will be created,” an Eni statement promised.

Operator Eni (65 percent) is joined at Goliat by Norwegian state champion StatoilHydro (20 percent) and Det norske oljeslskap with 15 percent.

Tags: Eni Norge AS, Goliat, Sevan Marine