Statoil Says Kristin Templates are in Place

All four subsea templates have now been positioned as scheduled on Statoil's Kristin development in the Norwegian Sea, allowing production drilling to begin. The first of the templates was installed in May, with the three others put into place by one of the world's largest crane barges, Saipem 7000, during the last weekend of July.

"We've spent 18 months preparing for this job, and it was implemented as planned," says Statoil representative Dennis Lasse Dickhausen. "We deployed a strong multidisciplinary team throughout the operation."

The templates were fabricated by Aker Kvaerner Egersund south of Stavanger, and weigh 200 tons apiece. They measure 28 meters long, 16 wide and 13 high, and are each retained by four suction piles.

Manifolds to collect the wellstream from up to four wells in each template will first be installed next spring, and temporary overtrawlable covers have been positioned until then.

Located in the southwestern part of the Halten Bank, Kristin is a gas and condensate field being developed with a floating production platform. The first of 12 subsea producers are due to come on stream in the summer of 2005, with daily production capacity put at 126,000 barrels of condensate and 18 million cubic meters of gas.