Ormen Lange Gas Field – Fast-Track Innovation Enables Life Extension

Abstract Ormen Lange is a mature asset with 19 gas wells at four subsea templates. It is located 120 km offshore in the Norwegian Sea at a water depth of 1,000 m. The gas is produced via two 30-in. flowlines to the onshore Nyhamna processing plant, which has been exporting gas to the UK since 2007. Ormen Lange Phase 3 is a project to increase the total recovery from the field by using a new solution for seabed compression, which will be delivered and installed in 2025. The well stream will be compressed directly at the seabed to ensure sufficient landing pressure for the Nyhamna plant. Two 120-km umbilicals from Nyhamna will be used to power and control the compression system. The selected compression concept relies on the use of a suite of innovative technologies to be cost effective. However, this has required a qualification program to mature the technologies. During an early project phase, it was decided that maturation would be performed in parallel with project engineering and construction to reduce the total execution time. This would dramatically reduce the time to technology deployment, but the approach required careful risk control and flexible planning to avoid delays. This paper addresses how close collaboration between the operator, system contractor, and sub suppliers has enabled the development of a robust and cost-efficient solution for the Ormen Lange project by using carefully selected technology elements and an accelerated qualification process to mature them. This approach has not only enabled the use of subsea compression at Ormen Lange, but it has also laid a foundation for its application in other fields with greater step-out distances and depths.