The giant serpent Ormen Lange, managing the new key provider of natural gas to Europe from beneath the deep waters of the Norwegian Sea

摘要

Ormen Lange is the name of the second-largest Norwegian gasrnfield and was discovered and identified by Hydro in 1997. ThernOrmen Lange field comprises four key project features: Thernoffshore subsea solution, approximately 100 km off the northwestrncoast of Norway, with templates, manifolds and pipelines;rnthe onshore process and gas export facilities at Nyhamna,rnon the coast of Møre and Romsdal County; the gasrnexport transportation system between Norway and the UK,rnthrough a tie-in to the Sleipner field installation as a distributionrnconnector; and the Easington gas reception terminal in thernUK. The Ormen Lange field development project is of vitalrnimportance, not only to its owners, but also to Norway –rnmaking the country the third-biggest exporter of natural gasrnworldwide. On December 4, 2003, a plan for developmentrnand operation (PDO) was submitted to the Norwegian authorities,rnto embark on the project’s execution phase. The projectrnhas been subjected to extraordinary, and in particular technicalrnand commercial challenges which have required the developmentrnof and a focus on new management systems and systematicrnwork processes. This paper provides an introduction to thernelements that collectively represent the entire Ormen Langernfield development, including the key technical and commercialrnchallenges, as well as the management strategy, utilizing systematicrnwork processes to achieve alignment and efficientrnprogress while preserving the environment, personal healthrnand assets.