See the great photos on how LOGSTOR Oil Pipes are reeled in big spools on the Deep Energy vessel for the offshore installation of the KRAKEN project.

Facts about the Kraken project

The Kraken project is one of the largest new oil fields in the North Sea.

• Discovered in 1985, Kraken is a large heavy oil accumulation in the UK North Sea, located in the East Shetland basin, to the west of the North Viking Graben; approximately 125 km east of the Shetland Islands
• The fields comprise oil accumulations located 4000 feet below the surface of the sea.
• The field is estimated to contain approximately 140million barrels of gross oil reserves
• £4 billion of capital and operational investment, 80% of which will be spent in the UK, estimated to generate future revenue of £9 billion
• Using Oil & Gas UK’s reporting metrics, the Kraken development will support more than 20,000 UK jobs during the construction period of the project and an average of approximately 1,000 operational jobs in the UK for each year of Kraken’s 25 year life.
• Gross peak oil production expected to be over 50,000 barrels of oil per day, first oil production in 2017.
• The Kraken vessel will be one of the largest ever built in the UK North Sea.
• EnQuest holds a 60% interest in Kraken, Cairn Energy holds 25% and First Oil 15%.

LOGSTOR as part of the KRAKEN Project

• LOGSTOR insulated approx. 38 km of 12’’ pipes during second semester of 2014 for the DC1 & DC2 parts of the KRAKEN field development project.

• LOGSTOR pipes had a final outside diameter of 16.5’’ for an individual weight of 2 T. Kraken field offers a current base case estimate of 130 Mstb (Million Stock Tank barrels) of produced oil to end-2039. Pipeline will be in operation in the UK North Sea at around 400 km northeast of Aberdeen, Scotland in a nominal water depth of 120ml to MSL. A second part of the project (DC3) will be insulated by LOGSTOR during the summer 2015.

• Single pipes have been welded in 1km sections at the Evanton spool base in Scotland from September 2014 to February 2015 waiting to be laid offshore by the Deep Energy vessel. This vessel is the fastest and one of the largest and most capable pipe lay vessels ever built. She supports subsea developments in shallow and ultra-deep water at depths from 16 m to 3,000 m. She has an overall length of 194.5 m for a width of 31m.

•  Technip spooled the first half of pipes in March 2015 on the Deep Energy. They spool 1km of pipes at a time per reel at a speed of 20-25 meter per minute. When the first section is spooled, they connect the second 1km section. In parallel, they spool on the second reel to avoid wasting time. Technip is actually spooling the second half of Single pipes at the Evanton spool base without any issue.
• To assure this activity, the Deep Energy is fitted with twin horizontal axis reels of 2,800 T capacity for pipe storage. Each reel is fitted with a spooling gantry with spooling carriage and travelling roller boxes, which provide sufficient side force to align the pipe correctly during spooling operations. First set of Single pipes was successfully laid offshore early April 2015. The Deep Energy is equipped with a pipe lay system designed around a tillable tower at the vessel stern.