World's First Undersea Compression Plant Online

The world’s first subsea gas compression plant has come online at about 1,000 feet underwater at the Åsgard Field in the Norwegian Sea.

Statoil S.A. began the project in 2005 at a cost of about $2.3 billion. The company expects to add about 306 million barrels of oil equivalent over the field's life. The underwater plant’s ability to compress gas will enable Statoil to produce more oil or gas from the reservoir.

Statoil’s compression plant in Åsgard will increase production in the Midgard reservoir by about 20 percent and 25 percent for the Mikkel reservoir.

Until now, compression plants have only been installed on offshore platforms and on land facilities. Statoil says they’ve employed more than 40 new technologies in the compression plant.

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate recently granted Statoil permits to build a second subsea compressor in the Gullfaks field in the North Sea.