Alcatel, Nexans To Supply Castberg Reservoir Monitoring System

Alcatel Submarine Networks will provide permanent reservoir monitoring (PRM) for Equinor’s Johan Castberg project in the Barents Sea.

In turn, Alcatel has signed a letter of intent with Nexans Norway to supply subsea cable.

The award is an option that Equinor awarded in a framework agreement on PRM with Alcatel when signing an earlier contract this year for the Johan Sverdrup field in the North Sea.

PRM project management on the two fields will be shared, leading to both synergies and savings, Equinor said, adding that these are the first fields in the world to install this tool before the start of production.

Nexans Norway will manufacture the backbone cable network and inter-station cable in Rognan, Norway, the package comprising more than 200 km (124 mi) of subsea cable. Seismic stations will be incorporated into the cables at ASN’s facility in Calais, northern France.

With PRM seismic sensors are installed permanently on the seabed, providing improved images of reservoir changes more frequently, and Equinor sees the data as pivotal to its use of digital technology at Johan Castberg field.

Benefits include visualization, modeling and predictive analyses.

Aside from the fiber-optic seismic cables, 3,700 sensors will be spread on the seabed at the Johan Castberg field. The cables will start sending images before start-up in 2022, including information on the reservoirs, assisting well placement and control of production and injection.

Recoverable reserves from this project are in the range of 450-650 MMbbl. Other partners are Eni Norge and Petoro.

Source: wire WORLD