Energy Optimisation and Reduction of CO2-Emission on the North Sea Sleipner Gas Production Platform

There is increasing focus in the industry towards energy efficiency and reduction of CO2 emission. In Norway this has also been strengthened by the introduction of the CO2-tax which in most cases more than doubles the fuel cost. In the North Sea production platforms operated by Statoil there has been a continuing optimisation program to reduce amount of fuel and flare gas for many years.Optimisation has been done in maintaining high efficiency in gas turbine power production, reducing especially gas compression power demand by simple modifications and process optimisation, and reduce flaring by operating procedures and simple modifications. This has on the Sleipner platforms led to reduction of fuel gas consumption by more than 15 % and flaring has been reduced by 90 %. The total reduction of CO2 to atmosphere from Sleipner field is some 250 000 tons CO2 per year. Many of these improvements would also have been justifiable without the CO2-tax. This paper describes the various fuel and flare reduction activities done on the Sleipner field and outlines some of the possible further improvements currently being considered.Copyright © 2000 by ASME