Statoil ASA announced Thursday that the world’s first subsea gas compression plant is now online at the Åsgard field in the Norwegian Sea. The move is a step closer to Statoil’s goal of achieving a complete subsea processing plant (or “subsea factory” ). Statoil said that the recovery from the Midgard reservoir on Åsgard will increase from 67 percent to 87 percent, while recovery from the Mikkel reservoir will improve from 59 percent to 84 percent, as a result of the new facility. The overall effect will be to add some 306 million barrels of oil equivalent to the total output of Åsgard during the field’s life. Statoil began the $2.3-billion project in 2005 and an estimated 11 million man-hours have been spent on it from start to completion. The firm said that more than 40 new technologies have been developed and employed as part of the installation. Compression […]