ORMEN LANGE

'Ormen Lange' is the largest natural gas field under development in Norwegian continental shelf. The field is situated 120 km northwest of Kristiansund, where seabed depths vary between 800 and 1,100 metre. The reservoir is approximately 40 km long and 8 km wide, and lies about 3,000 metres below sea level. Proven gas reserves reach 397 billion m³.
Total cost is estimated to reach 66 billion Norwegian kroner by the time of completion. This equivalates to about 10 billion USD.

Contents

Natural conditions

Concepts and solutions

Ownership and operators

Other uses

See also

External links

Natural conditions

Extreme natural conditions at the site (subzero temperatures most of the year, stormy seas, strong underwater currents, uneven seabed) put great demands on the technology used in the project. The 'Storegga Slides' that occurred in the area 7,000 years ago have been investigated, with the conclusion that the risk of reoccurrence is negligible.

Concepts and solutions

The Ormen Lange field will be developed without using conventional offshore platforms. Instead, 24 subsea wellheads in four seabed templates on the ocean floor are connected directly by two 30-inch pipelines to an onshore process terminal at Nyhamna. After processing the gas will be exported by the world's longest subsea export pipeline - Langeled pipeline - approximately 1,200 km from Nyhamna to Easington in England. The northern section of the export pipeline will have a diameter of 42 inches, and the section from Sleipner to Easington will have a diameter of 44 inches. Production should start in October 2007. The field will produce 70 million m³ of natural gas per day. Gas from Ormen Lange will be able to meet up to 20% of Britain’s gas demand, for up to 40 years.

Ownership and operators

Several companies share ownership of Ormen Lange.

★ Petoro AS: 36%

★ Norsk Hydro: 18%

★ Norske Shell: 17%

★ Statoil: 11%

★ DONG Energy: 10%

★ Exxon Mobil: 7%
Ormen Lange is operated by Norsk Hydro during the development stage. In the operational phase, Norske Shell will become the operator.

Other uses

''Ormen Lange'' (the long serpent) is the name of the most famous longship of Olaf Tryggvason, a 10th century Viking king of Norway.

See also

★ Langeled pipeline

External links

★ Ormen Lange website, by Hydro

★ Falcon website, Pipe laying vessel MEG lines one of the many offshore vessels involved in the Ormen Lange project.