Martin Linge field starts up in North Sea
The Martin Linge oil and gas field in the North Sea came on stream on 30 June, operator Equinor announced in a statement. The field is powered from shore, resulting in low CO2 emissions, and operated from its onshore control room.
“This is a big day for everyone working on the Martin Linge project, for Equinor and for our partner Petoro. I would like to thank everyone who has worked hard to deliver this project,” said Arne Sigve Nylund, Equinor’s Executive VP for Projects, Drilling & Procurements.
Expected recoverable resources are approximately 260 million BOE. At its peak, the field will produce around 115,000 BOE/day.
“Martin Linge is an important contribution to Norwegian oil and gas production. Thanks to new infrastructure in this area it will be possible to realize new discoveries in the future. Equinor has formed a cross-disciplinary team who is looking into the opportunities of a wider area surrounding Martin Linge,” said Rune Nedregaard, Senior VP for Operations South of Exploration & Production Norway.
The Martin Linge platform receives power via the world’s longest alternating-current sea cable measuring 163 km from the onshore substation at Kollsnes in western Norway.
“Electrification is one of our main measures for reducing CO2 emissions from our activities,” Mr Nedregaard said.
The platform was connected to shore power in December 2018 and was soon followed by the storage vessel on the Martin Linge field. This is the world’s first storage vessel receiving power from shore.
Martin Linge is also the first platform on the Norwegian continental shelf to be put on stream from shore. The production wells and processing plant are operated from the control room in Stavanger, and the offshore operators use tablets in the field to interact with their colleagues in the onshore control room and operations center. Onshore control room will reduce costs in the operating phase.
