GOLIAT FIELD DEVELOPMENT

CIRCULAR FPSO IN HARSH ENVIRONMENT

T. B. Tangvald, K. Kiste, Eni Norge AS

This paper was presented at the Offshore Mediterranean Conference and Exhibition in Ravenna, Italy, March 25-27, 2009. It
was selected for presentation by the OMC Programme Committee following review of information contained in the abstract

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submitted by the authors. The Paper a presented at OMC 2009 has not been reviewed by the Programme Committee.

ABSTRACT

The Goliat field is located on the Norwegian part of the Barents Sea. Goliat will be the first oil
field to be developed in an area that is considered very important with respect to fishing and
wild life resources.

The Goliat field will be developed by a Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessel of
novel circular design connected to eight subsea templates containing production, water
injection and gas injection wells. The produced oil will be exported via dedicated shuttle
tankers to the commercial market and it is expected that the limited gas resources over time
can be export via available infrastructure in the area.

The development solution is based on use of a circular and geo-stationary FPSO that will
receive electric power from the onshore grid as one mean to reduce emission of green house
gases.

INTRODUCTION

Exploration activities for petroleum resources on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) in
the Barents Sea started in 1980. Several discoveries were made up to 1996, but apart from
the gas discoveries in the Snøhvit area, none of them were considered economically
sustainable. In April 1996, the Norwegian Government announced that it wanted to boost
exploration activities in the Barents Sea and invited the oil companies to apply for new and
larger exploration areas. This campaign was called "The Barents Sea Project".

PL 229 was awarded in 1997 with a total area of some 1010 km2. Several changes have
taken place in the partnership and the present licensees are:

• Eni Norge AS, 65% - operator

• StatoilHydro Petroleum AS, 35% - partner

The location of PL 229 is shown in figure 1.

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Figure 1: Location of Goliat outside Hammerfest, Northern Norway

The Goliat license has delivered the Plan for Development and Operation (PDO) to the
Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy in February 2009 and Parliament approval is
expected in June 2009. Awards of the major construction contracts are planned for 2nd half of
2009. Production start-up is targeted for fourth quarter of 2013.

RESERVOIR

Hydrocarbons have been proven in the Realgrunnen Sub-Group and the Kobbe Formation in
addition to smaller accumulations in the Snadd Formation and Klappmyss Formation. The
reservoirs are divided into several lateral compartments:

• Oil in Realgrunnen Main compartment was proven by well 7122/7-1 drilled autumn
2000.
• Oil in Realgrunnen Central compartment was proven by well 7122/7-2 drilled autumn
2001.
• Oil and gas in Realgrunnen South compartment and oil in Kobbe South compartment
were proven by well 7122/7-3 drilled autumn 2005.
• The Kobbe South compartment was appraised by well 7122/7-4S drilled autumn
2006, proving gas and oil.
• The West compartment was found water bearing by well 7122/7-5 drilled winter
2006/2007. A sidetrack (7122/7-5A) proved oil in the Central compartment of Kobbe.

The reservoirs are more or less at hydrostatic pressure, i.e. 120 bar for Realgrunnen and 190
bar for Kobbe. Reservoir temperature is very low, 29-35oC for Realgrunnen and 48-53oC for
Kobbe.

The technical recoverable reserves are about 28 millions Sm3 of oil and 8 milliards Sm3 of
gas if an export solution is agreed via existing LNG facilities in the area or via future
alternative gas export solutions.

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METOCEAN DATA

Offshore monitoring of weather data for has been carried out at the Goliat field over an 18
months period. The collected data has been compared with available Hindcast data and long
term weather statistics for the area in close cooperation with the Norwegian Metrological
Institute. The performed work has introduced slight increase of the wave design conditions

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that were established prior to commence exploration drilling in 2000.

The wind and wave distributions are shown in figure 2 and 3 respectively. The design values
used for the FPSO development are shown in table 1 and 2.

Figure 2: Wind distribution (10 minutes mean, 10m above SWL)

Figure 3: Wave distribution (significant wave height)

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 Wind (return period) Velocity (ms)
1 year 32,3
10 years 36,1
100 years 39,5
10.000 years 45,5

Table 1: Wind Design Data

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Wave (return period) Hs (m) Tp (s)
1 year 10,6 14,4
10 years 13,1 15,9
100 years 15,6 17,2
10.000 years 20,3 19,5

Table 2: Wave Design Data

From figure 2 it can be seen that wind exposure is relatively equally distributed, however with
wind coming from the southerly direction as prevailing. In figure 3 it is showed that the
highest seastates are coming from west. The relative distributions of wind and waves were
important input parameters to settle the field- and FPSO layout principles.

HSE REQUIREMENTS

The Goliat field is located in an environmentally sensitive area. The project reflects this in
applying stringent environmental requirements to all phases of the project. The principal HSE
objectives are defined as:

• The selected technical solutions shall be inherently safe with a low risk level, and fulfil
the Barents Sea regime requirements with respect to emissions to air and discharges
to sea.
• The selected facilities shall provide a thoroughly sound working environment, and
meet the challenges given by the harsh climate.
• The project shall ensure sufficient resources to provide high quality deliveries and a
good working environment in the project organisation

To meet these objectives at this phase of the project, inherently safe and robust solutions
have as far as possible been selected.

Requirements for technical safety management in project development and design

processes have been an integrated part of the requirements from the early start of the Goliat
project. The objectives have been to:

• Identify and minimize risk

• Develop safety strategies and performance requirements for safety systems and
barriers
• Develop inherently safe solutions - functioning safely by their own means, i.e. without
auxiliary media, auxiliary energy and active components
• Ensure safe operation of the FPSO

The applied working systematic to achieve acceptable technical safety of the FPSO is
shown in figure 4.

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Figure 4: Technical Safety Design

The preliminary estimated Fatal Accident Rate (FAR) is below 3,0 statistical fatalities per 108
worked hours and is well below the acceptance criteria of the development project.

In the Barents Sea, special requirements apply for discharges to sea. In principle there shall
be no discharges and this is defined as minimum 95% regularity of the produced water
injection system. For Goliat, reservoir pressure support will be maintained mainly by water
injection consisting of produced water and seawater. The two water qualities are kept
separate to minimise scaling potentials, however seawater and produced water streams are
connected to a common manifold system allowing any of the water injection pumps to
prioritise injection of produced water. As a secondary method to minimise potential pollution
from discharges to sea, the produced water will always be cleaned according to the best
available techniques (hydro cyclones and flotation systems) for periods when produced water
will be discharged.

FIELD ARRANGEMENT

The field arrangement is based on the drainage strategy for the field. The reservoir work has
resulted in a drainage strategy based on 11 oil production wells, 9 water injection wells and 2
gas injection wells as illustrated in figure 5.

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Figure 5: Drainage strategy

A main challenge for establishment of the field arrangement has been the shallow reservoir
depths of approx. 1100 m for Realgrunnen and 1800 m for Kobbe leading to a congested
arrangement of the subsea templates.

The drilling patterns are shown in figure 6. This arrangement is based on a reasonable
compromise between drilling operations, flow assurance, installation of flowlines and mooring
of drilling rigs for the initial drilling period and for future well interventions. The overall field
arrangement is shown in figure 7.

Figure 6 Well Trajectories

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Figure 7: Field Arrangement

FLOWLINES

The arrangement of the subsea production systems and the flowlines are shown in figure 8.
Two identical rigid production flowlines create a loop from the FPSO to template E in the
south and back, thus making round-trip pigging possible. Well stream from templates B, C
and D is delivered into the production flowlines via flexible jumpers being tied in to in-line Tee
structures on the flowlines. Tie-in to template E is via rigid expansion spools. All production
templates will have access to gas for gas lift purposes. A flexible gas lift flowline is "daisy-
chained" through template B, C, D with end point at template E.

The production flowlines are fitted with a Direct Electrical Heating (DEH) system to warm the
fluid contents during a shutdown and to maintain minimum fluid temperatures during tail end
production. The DEH system comprises a piggy-back cable running along the entire length of
each flowline with connection points and current transition zones (anode banks) at the
flowline ends.

A separate DEH cable riser (based on a pliant wave riser configuration) connects the FPSO
topside DEH equipment to the piggy-back cables. In combination with the DEH system, the
production flowlines will be coated with a wet insulation coating. The preliminary design of
the DEH system has been performed in cooperation with SINTEF Energi Forskning that has
been involved in the majority of the DEH installations on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

Flexible water injection flowlines are routed from the FPSO in a "daisy-chain" configuration
through template G and H to I. The gas injection flowline is a rigid line which starts at the
FPSO and ends at template F.

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The subsea control umbilical is routed in a complete loop from the FPSO through all of the
templates thus giving full redundancy in the event of an umbilical failure. Basis for all
dynamic umbilicals including the subsea isolation valve (SSIV) umbilical is a pliant wave riser
configuration.

Most of the flowlines are routed in a central corridor between templates B/H and E/I. The
reason for that is the field layout where many templates are located within a short distance.
The challenge has been to avoid crossing between the flowlines and the anchor lines from
the drilling rig. Also it has been important for flow assurance reasons to have as short a

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distance between template B and the FPSO as possible.

Figure 8: Subsea Production Systems and Flowlines

SUBSEA PRODUCTION SYSTEM

The field development will comprise installation of eight Integrated Template Structures
(ITS). The templates will each accommodate one manifold and four well slots.

The basic philosophy for the ITS is to limit the offshore installation operation by installing the
template and protection structure together. It is also possible to include the manifold module
in the combined lift. The structure enables tie-in operations either prior to or after drilling of
the wells. The ITS will be designed for trawl loads and loads from dropped objects according
to NORSOK requirements.

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The wells are drilled through the well slots where the conductors are guided and hung off
during cementing of the conductor to the soil.

The Goliat production templates will be designed to accommodate up to four trees. These
four-slots templates will each comprise an integrated foundation and protection structure.
The objective of the template structure is to provide seabed support for the manifold and well
slot arrangement that will provide adequate support, guiding and alignment for the drilling
and completion of the wells and interface to the manifold module.

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The main structural elements will provide protection for the trees, manifold system and tie-in
areas from dropped objects or impact from fishing activities. In addition, to provide protection
from damage due to fishing activities, the template structure will also prevent as far as
reasonably practical snagging of fishing gear or damage to fishing equipment.

The SPS will be provided with leakage monitoring systems in order to increase the
environmental protection.

FPSO

The selected FPSO will be a Norwegian Sevan Marine developed circular steel platform
design. This type of platform is a new concept that has not been used on the Norwegian
Continental Shelf (NCS) yet. However, the steel based hull circular and geostationary spread
moored FPSO concept with direct oil offloading is based on a design that has been proven in
smaller scale on fields on the British North Sea sector (Hummingbird and Voyager), and has
a considerable operational experience in Brazilian waters (Piranema).

The facility will be a floating mono-hull with oil storage that has been especially designed and
developed for harsh weather conditions. The topside facilities are designed for a cold climate
and with a high focus on HSE and robustness. The facility is designed for no discharges of
produced water to sea during normal operations, and provisions of power from shore, will
limit the offshore power generation and related emissions to air.

The geostationary spread moored FPSO does not need a complex and costly turret-swivel
based arrangement. Utilisation of electrical power from shore as well as transfer systems for
fluids and utilities are therefore simpler, more flexible and have significantly less limitations
for circular geostationary units than would be the case for a turret-swivel based unit.

The design work provided for the installation is based on the general NORSOK
requirements. Additional Eni Norge design requirements have been included for the purpose
of winterization and to ensure that technical safety, working environment and robustness
requirements in operation are met.

The platform is designed for oil storage and offloading from two offloading stations securing
that the shuttle tanker will be located in safe position during offloading operation for any wind
and wave directions. Such a direct offloading system on a geostationary unit is new to the
Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), but has been installed and operated successfully both in
the UK North Sea sector and in other parts of the world.

The Goliat FPSO will be initially installed with process design capacities as follows:

• Gas processing capacity: 3.9 million Sm3/day

• Oil production capacity: 16 500 Sm3/day with an inlet separator pressure of 10 bara

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 • Produced water capacity: 12 000 m3/day
• Total liquid production: 17 500 m³/day
• Water injection (including produced water): 20 000 Sm3/day

The gas injection and lift will be exported to the following specification:

• Outlet pressure: P = 225 bara

• Outlet temperature: T = 50º C
• H2S content: Below 10 ppm

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The crude oil will be stabilized and exported to the following specification:

• TVP: < 0.965 bara at 35° C

• RVP: < 0.76 bara
• Water in Oil: 0.3 vol% BS&W maximum
• Max temperature: 50° C
• Max salt content: 100 ppm

The hull systems include oil storage, load compensation water (ballast and/or trim water) and
slop tanks. The platform will not fully compensate for the variation of oil storage weight during
operation and the draft will therefore vary with 10 meters during the loading cycle in the
operational phase. The free board will vary between 18 meters to 28 meters to the process
deck if the spare deck load capacity is fully utilised. The unit will be built to minimize and
reduce impact of green water for the topside decks and equipment.

The circular steel hull is well suited for an offshore FPSO. The hull design is very effective
with respect to material fatigue, and the hull is generally simpler and easier to design and
construct than the traditional ship shaped FPSO solutions. The steel hull structural parts
have been specified for 30 years design life. This opens for a potential long term area
solution with tie-in and services for additional resources in the area. Potential reuse of the
floating substructure after the production from the Goliat reservoirs is shut down may be
considered.

In order to allow for future tie in of additional resources and prepare for potential third party
services, the Goliat FPSO has been designed with a weight margin of 6000 tonnes for future
loads related to additional modules (4500 tonnes), integrated equipment (1000 tonnes) and
riser loads (500 tonnes). Some spare capacities are also built into the utility and support
systems in order to have flexibility for the expected future demands.

The circular steel hull is designed for good motion characteristics with beneficial heave and
pitch movements, especially for the local area operating conditions. Such characteristics
contribute to a good working environment, improved material handling, general safety and
operational aspects of the facility.

The hull is provided with straight vertical riser pull in I-tubes integrated into the hull for the
flowlines, umbilicals and cables which will be hung off on the top of the hull. The hull will be
prepared for a total of 20 pull in I-tubes that will be terminated in the classified area and an
additional 5 pull in I-tubes that can be used for cables and therefore can be terminated on the
safe side of the platform.

Of the 20 pre-installed riser I-tubes, 10 will be occupied from day one, leaving 10 riser slots
available for future Goliat field development or third party fields tie-ins and services. In

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addition, 4 of the 5 pre-installed cable I-tubes will be available for future development
projects.

The Sevan FPSO design is shown in figure 9 and 10.

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Figure 9: Sevan FPSO for Goliat

Figure 10: FPSO Hull Tank Arrangement

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The process area layout, including walls that will reduce the natural ventilation rate, is
considered to be a reasonable compromise with regard to wind chill and explosion load
requirements.

The design of the outer protective wall has been developed to allow for potential future
process modules and to include laydown areas east and west of process area. Wind chill
values in the process area shall give yearly unavailability less than 2%. The unavailability is
calculated by taking into account the operational restrictions at Wind Chill Index above 1000
W/m2.

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The laydown/material handling philosophy provides for weather protected primary and
secondary laydown areas. The laydown area for temporary storage at upper utility deck level
and tote tank area are challenging with regard to weather protection as these areas need to
be easily accessible for crane operations in a safe way, but the intention is to include wind
shielding as far as practicable, provided maintenance of safe crane operations. Kitchen
laydown area will be wind shielded. Work stations related to offloading and hose loading will
be properly weather protected.

The principles of the winterization structure are shown in figure 9.

ELECTRIFICATION

Electrification of new oil and gas field developments is an important factor contributing to
increase power supply efficiency and reduce the CO2 emissions on the NCS.

Electrification of the Goliat FPSO will be based on electricity supplied from onshore via a
subsea power cable, combined with a gas turbine on the facility. Electrical power will be
supplied from the regional grid in Hammerfest via a 90-132 kV subsea power cable rated for
minimum 60 MW. A distribution system will be installed onshore, dedicated for the power
supply to the FPSO. The onshore installation will contain a new substation, cable in the
ground, overhead line, rerouting of cables and overhead lines, transformers, reactors and
other electrical system needed.

In addition to the high voltage conductors, the subsea power cable will contain fibre optic
cables for communication and control purposes. A dynamic hang-off arrangement will be
provided for the subsea cable where it enters the FPSO. The main power supply from shore
will be connected to the 11 kV switchgear on the FPSO via step-down transformers.

The power and heat demands for Goliat are shown in figure 11. Due to the high requirement
for termal heat in the separation process, special emphasis has been made to introduce
large electrical process heaters allowing the production to continue at reduced capacity if one
of the two main power sources should become unavailable. Subject to actual load on the
turbine generator, approx. 50% reduction in the CO2 emissions will be achieved compared
with a traditional offshore power generation solution.

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Figure 11: Power and Heat Demand

CONCLUSIONS

The Goliat field will be developed with a novel circular FPSO design that introduces new
principles for weather protection of the process areas combining natural ventilation with
protection of personnel and equipment. The unit will be permanently moored and will
maintain fixed heading at the field

The produced oil will be offloaded by means of two offloading systems connected to
dynamically positioned (DP) tankers ensuring that offloading is possible for all weather
directions as long as the seastate is within the DP capacity of the shuttle tankers.

The Goliat FPSO will partly be powered by electric power from the onshore grid leading to
approx. 50% reduction of CO2 emissions.

The Goliat FPSO is prepared for 30-years life time and has spare capacities to serve as a
hub enabling development of future discoveries in the area.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors thank the Goliat license and Sevan Marine for their permission to present the
Goliat Development Project during the OMC 2009 event.

REFERENCES

Goliat Impact Assessment and support documents available at:

www.eninorge.no

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