First diverless satellite field

The East Frigg development was pursued in close collaboration with the former Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk (KV) company’s oil division, which subsequently became Kongsberg Offshore. KV was involved both in the project and study stage and during the design and construction phase. The subsea technology used was based on results from the Skuld and Super Skuld research projects.

East Frigg comprised two separate structures, sometimes known as East and South-East Frigg. A traditional development in 1988 would have called for two platforms, but the research findings led to the installation of two seabed templates ­- one over each structure.

These production stations A and B (PSA and PSB) with accessories and the central manifold station (CMS) were all that stood on East Frigg.

A gas pipeline, a control line with power cables and a hydraulic service line linked the field facilities with Frigg. All production and control functions were run from the quarters platform on the main field via an electro-hydraulic system.

Gas from the satellite field’s wells passed via the CMS and then by pipeline to the TCP2 platform on Frigg, where it was received in a special East Frigg module. This also controlled the subsea installations.

Opening_East_Frigg_1988From TCP2, the gas was piped through the Frigg Norwegian pipeline to St Fergus in Scotland and sold to British Gas under the Frigg contract.

The East Frigg project was pioneering technology for Elf. It was the second subsea development with remotely controlled wells on the Norwegian continental shelf after North-East Frigg, and the first with no surface platform in the North Sea.

When the field was officially inaugurated by petroleum and energy minister Arne Øien on 18 October 1988, it had already been in trial production for a number of weeks. Contractual deliveries to British Gas began on 1 October.