Neptune Energy installed the world’s longest ETH production pipe at its Fenja field

Fenja is Neptune’s 1st operated development project on the Norwegian Shelf and is estimated to contain 97 million boe

The world’s longest 37 km electrically trace-heated (ETH) pipe-in-pipe solution will transport oil from the field to the Njord A platform, operated by Equinor.

The innovative use of the ETH pipe-in-pipe significantly reduced the potential cost of the development by enabling the field to be tied back to existing infrastructure.

Erik Oppedal, Neptune’s director of Projects & Engineering in Norway, said:

Completing the installation and testing of the ETH pipe is a great technical achievement and a major step forward in the development of the Fenja field
The ETH pipe-in-pipe solution is crucial for extracting the oil and is a creative, cost-effective approach that permitted us to tie the field back to existing infrastructure

The ETH pipeline was developed and qualified through a collaborative approach with TechnipFMC.

The offshore installation was carried out across 2 subsea campaigns in 2020 and 2021 by TechnipFMC’s vessel, approximately 120 km north of Kristiansund, Norway, at a water depth of about 320 m.

Due to the high wax content of the Fenja field’s oil, the contents of the pipeline must be warmed to a temperature above 28-degrees Celsius before starting the flow after a scheduled shut down or interruption.
During normal production, the temperature in the pipeline would be well above this temperature.

Drilling of the Fenja production wells is scheduled to begin in 4^th quarter, 2021, by the Deepsea Yantai drilling rig.