Steps to the Subsea Factory
Authors: Ramberg Rune Mode , Davies Simon R h , Rognoe Hege , Oekland Ole 
Published: June 2014

During the last 25 years Statoil, in cooperation with key vendors, have developed technical solutions for subsea field development resulting in more than 500 subsea wells.

As part of the corporate Technology strategy Statoil has launched a technology plan for the Statoil Subsea Factory™ concept. The plan describes how to combine subsea production and processing technology elements together with key business prioritised elements such as long distance multiphase transport, floating production facilities and pipeline networks to enable cost-effective field development. In addition, subsea production and processing can enable accelerated production and increased recovery in an energy-efficient manner, and with low environmental footprint

This paper provides an overview of the technologies enabling the Subsea Factory concept and the operating experience gained in assets having implemented subsea processing technologies.

The paper describes the technology staircase starting with subsea boosting in the LuFeng field and the separation, produced water reinjection and fluid boosting applications at Troll Pilot and the Tordis fields. The paper describes Tyrihans raw seawater injection and summarises the gas compression technology projects underway for the Gullfaks and Åsgard fields.

The plan takes account of two specific value-creation goals Statoil is targeting - namely to realise subsea compression by 2015 and a complete subsea factory by 2020.

Focus on establishing a Subsea Factory concept can be explained by the desire to improve the economic value of field developments. Utilizing a system approach from reservoir to export system, combine and reuse in new ways the subsea production and processing technologies already installed or being constructed in Statoil.

The processing element will enable the fluids to be treated to a level where they can be safely transported in flowlines to a downstream host, whether onshore or offshore, fixed or floating. Future generations of subsea factory may include more sophisticated processing elements.

Statoil's vision is to develop and deploy all the necessary technology elements required for a " subsea factory", i.e. for the equivalent of a topsides processing facility to be operated on the seabed, enabling remote subsea to beach hydrocarbon transport solutions in any offshore location. Statoil will be " Taking subsea longer, deeper and colder" to accelerate and increase production" by implementing the Statoil Subsea Factory™. The term " Older" is also discussed in light of the potential to reuseexisting technology elements to increase recovery and maintain production at existing/brownfield facilities at the Norwegian Continental shelf.

Introduction

As part of the corporate Technology strategy Statoil has launched a technology plan for the Statoil Subsea FactoryTM covering subsea production and processing technologies. The plan has been produced to support the aims of the Statoil corporate technology strategy (CTS) and the business goal of producing 2.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOEPD) by 2020.