Norwegian oil and gas company, Statoil confirmed in a press release on Thursday that its subsea gas compression facility is in operation at the Åsgard field on the Halten Bank of the Norwegian Sea.

Statoil launches subsea gas compressor

Norway

STAVANGER, September 17, 2015 – Norwegian oil and gas company, Statoil confirmed in a press release on Thursday that its subsea gas compression facility is in operation at the Åsgard field on the Halten Bank of the Norwegian Sea. This compression installation is the first of its kind in the world, and will be instrumental in changing the way offshore oil is processed and produced.

With the implementation of subsea gas compression, oil recovery will increase from 67 percent to an estimated 87 percent at the Midgard reservoir, and from 59 percent to 84 percent at the Mikkel reservoir, which adds an overall 306 million barrels of oil equivalent to Åsgard’s estimated production.

“Thanks to the new compressor we will achieve increased recovery rates both at Midgard and Mikkel, extending the reservoirs’ productive lives until 2032,” senior vice president for Statoil’s Åsgard operations, Siri Espedal Kindem said in a press release.

The more than NOK19-billion ($2-billion) project began in 2005 and took an estimated 11 million workhours to complete.

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