Gjoa Restarts After 2-Week Leak Outage
Engie E&P said July 7 that the Gjoa platform in the Norwegian part of the North Sea is back in production after a gas leak on June 21 forced it to close.
The French operator said the restart followed "extensive inspection". Gjoa will now ramp gradually back to its normal level shortly after start-up.
It said the direct cause of the leak was a crack in a weld of a ½-inch pipe associated with a condensate pump. Inspections revealed welding deficiencies in the pump where the leak occurred and in six other condensate pumps, an issue it said had now been addressed, with the pumps now back in service.
In connection with the shutdown caused by the leak, Engie also identified incorrect functioning on some valves in the emergency shutdown system -- also now rectified. The overall leak incident is still being investigated, both internally and by the Norwegian upstream safety regulator Ptil.
Daily oil and gas production of Gjoa and its satellite field Vega are about 30,000 b/d and 19mn m³/d (or 7bn m³/yr) respectively, said Engie.
Gjoa licensees are Norwegian state Petoro and Engie E&P (each 30%), Wintershall 20%, Shell 12% and Russia-backed DEA 8%.
Vega licensees are Wintershall 55.62%, Petoro 28.32%, Bayerngas Norge 7.3%, with Engie E&P and Japan's Idemitsu each with 4.38%.
Engie announced May 11 it is to sell its 70% interest in Engie E&P to UK-based Neptune Energy -- which is backed by Carlyle Group, CVC Capital Partners and smaller investors -- for $3.9bn. The other 30% remains owned by Chinese sovereign wealth fund CIC.
Mark Smedley