Snorre Subsea Tree and Completion Equipment

ABSTRACT The Snorre Subsea Production System (SPS) is an innovative 10 + 10 well facility which will be tied back to the Snorre tension leg platform (Figure 1). The Snorre SPS (Figure 2) will be installed in 1100 ft (335 m) of water, 93 miles (150 km) off the west coast of Norway in the northern sector of the North Sea2. The SPS installation is scheduled for the spring of 1992, with drilling and completion of the first subsea well slated for the fall of 1992. In general, field-proven components have been used wherever possible, with new technology being extensively verified and tested prior to installation. To the extent practical, the drilling and completion equipment designs also use field-proven components. These components have been combined in a unique manner to produce a safe and reliable system which: (1) employs guidelineless, remotely-operated techniques for deployment, installation, and retrieval of the various subsea modules, (2) provides through flow line (TFL) maintenance capability, (3) uses metal seals and welded constructions for connections on permanently-installed equipment, (4) minimizes the number of hydraulic functions on the subsea tree, and (5) has been specifically designed to enhance the safety of simultaneous drilling and production operations. This paper explains the basic design features of the Snorre subsea tree and completion equipment. In addition, a brief description of the equipment is provided.