Alvheim

survey of all the areas, fields and installations on the Norwegian continental
shelf. It also describes developments in these waters since the 1960s,
including why Norway was able to become an oil nation, the role of
government and the rapid technological progress made.
In addition, the book serves as an industrial heritage plan for the oil
and gas industry. This provides the basis for prioritising offshore installations
worth designating as national monuments and which should be documented.
The book will help to raise awareness of the oil industry as industrial heritage
and the management of these assets.
Oil and gas fields in norway Industrial Heritage plan
This book is a work of reference which provides an easily understandable
Oil and gas fields
in norway
industrial heritage plan
Harald Tønnesen
(b 1947) is curator of the
Norwegian Petroleum Museum.
With an engineering degree from
the University of Newcastle-uponTyne, he has broad experience in
the petroleum industry. He began
his career at Robertson Radio
Elektro before moving to
Rogaland Research, and was
head of research at Esso Norge
AS before joining the museum.
Gunleiv Hadland
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Photo: Øyvind Hagen/Statoil
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Photo: Øyvind Hagen/Statoil
(b 1971) is a researcher at the
Norwegian Petroleum Museum.
He has an MA, majoring in history,
from the University of Bergen and
wrote his thesis on hydropower
development and nature conservation. He has earlier worked on
projects for the Norwegian Museum
of Science and Technology, the
Norwegian Water Resources and
Energy Directorate (NVE) and others.
120
Alvheim, Volund and Vilje
Alvheim
This oil and gas field lies in 120-130 metres of water
in the northern North Sea west of Heimdal. It comprises three deposits, 25/4-7, 24/6-2 and 26/6-4 Boa.
The last of these lies partly in the UK sector, and
has been unitised between the Alvheim group and
the British licensees – Maersk Oil & Gas and OMV.
Alvheim is operated by Marathon Petroleum Norge.
Reservoir and recovery strategy
The Alvheim field embraces the Kneler, Boa and
Kameleon reservoirs. Located in the Heimdal formation, the first of these is about 2 200 metres deep.
Boa lies 2 300 metres down, and its discovery well
identified a 25-metre gas column on top of 28 metres
of oil in high-quality sands. The reservoir is built up
from Palaeocene sandstones deposited as turbidites.
Alvheim is produced by natural water drive.
Transport
The oil is exported by tanker, with processed rich gas
carried in to a tie-in with Britain’s Sage pipeline to
St Fergus.
Sweden
Norway
Alvheim
United
Kingdom
Denmark
Development solution
Alvheim has been developed with an FPSO and
seabed installations. Oil is stabilised and stored on
the vessel before export by tanker.
Alvheim FPSO
Marathon purchased the MST Odin, ex MST Berge
Odin, and converted it to an FPSO at Vetco Aibel’s
Gas
Oil
Oil + gas
Vilje
Alvheim
SAGE UK
Transport
Oil tanker
Volund
121
Illustration: Marathon Petroleum Norge
yard in Haugesund during 2006-07. Built for a producing life of 25 years on the field, this vessel has
had its storage capacity expanded from 530 000
barrels of oil to 560 000. This means that a shuttle
tanker must arrive every fourth day to load oil from
the FPSO. Measuring 252 metres long by 42 wide,
the vessel was the third largest on the NCS when
it began producing. Only the Norne and Åsgard
FPSOs are larger.
Alvheim
Blocks Production licences
Awarded
24/6 anvd 25/4
088 BS, 203,
036 C and 203
1996 and 2003
Total recoverable reserves Remaining at 31 Dec 2008
173 mill bbl oil
8.1 bn scm gas
158.5 mill bbl oil
7.9 bn scm gas
Discovery year Approved for development
On stream Operator Operations organisation Main supply base 1998
6 Oct 2004
8 Jun 2008
Marathon Petroleum
Stavanger
Tananger
Licensees
Marathon Petroleum Norge 65%
ConocoPhillips Skandinavia 20%
Lundin Norway 15%
Alvheim FPSO. Photo: Marathon Petroleum Norge