Subsea technology from BMT supports Equinor’s Aasta Hansteen Spar

The world’s largest spar platform, Aasta Hansteen, has adopted this industry-leading subsea integrity monitoring solution. The Aasta Hansteen Spar platform is operated and owned by Equinor ASA, the Norwegian multinational energy company.

Located 300 kilometres west of Sandnessjøen on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) in water depths of up to 1,300m, the Aasta Hansteen Spar is installed in a harsh deepwater environment utilising highly robust deepwater Steel Catenary Risers (SCR).

Neil Charles, Operations Director for Offshore at BMT North America, commented:

“We are very pleased with the confidence that our client Subsea 7 has shown in our primary expertise related to subsea integrity monitoring. Teaming with Sonardyne on RMS has allowed us to help revolutionise the integrity management processes, and deliver superior reliability and accuracy, for Equinor’s major Norwegian Sea gas field.

“With the installation of SCRs, advanced sensing technologies for use in offshore oil and gas applications, this new RMS will greatly assist the Aasta Hansteen Spar platform with precision planning of maintenance activities and deliver the real potential for safe asset life extension. It combines rapid data processing and high-fidelity output with proven analysis expertise to offer our client’s float-on operation a leading-edge solution to integrity management and drives our innovation in this field”.

The BMT integrated RMS includes an innovative suite of strain, motion and position sensors deployed by underwater remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to monitor the SCR response in the Touch Down Zone (TDZ) and riser interaction with the Spar FPSO pull tube. The computationally intensive data collated by the RMS is used to validate and bring efficiencies to the Spar and SCR design.

With extensive experience in complex SCR Riser Monitoring Systems and proprietary ROV-deployed strain gauge assemblies, BMT has developed a unique underwater ROV installed RMS to monitor the integrity of the riser. This development was thanks to a collaboration with Sonardyne, who provided an innovative underwater acoustic positioning system that supported the subsea riser monitoring solution.

Photo: credited to Roar Lindefjeld/Bo B