SUMMARY
Crude oil (c. 10,700 BOPD) was produced through temporary topside facilities in the Rolf Field offshore Denmark from January 7th to September 27th, 1986. These simple, unmanned and remote controlled facilities were a low cost solution to a problem caused by delays of the permanent topside facilities. Project execution time was two months from start of conceptual design until start-up of oil production. Installation works were performed from a jack-up drilling rig – in part simultaneously with drilling operations. Materials and equipment installed were obtained with very short delivery times. The facilities which were certified by a Certification Society and approved by the Danish Authorities included all necessary safety features. Total costs for the facilities amounted to c. 1 million US$ (excl. rig time for installation). Due to simplicity high reliability of the production system was obtained. Availability of the facilities for the entire period from start-up was 99.6 percent. The facilities were manned 3.2 percent of the total operating time mainly due to wireline work for reservoir monitoring.
It is considered that the experience with the concept applied for the early production from the Rolf Field could form the basis for more simple and cost effective topside facilities for minor offshore fields.
