ENI Norge’s Goliat FPSO platform arrived in Hammerfest, Norway today following a 63-day, 15,608 nautical mile voyage from South Korea which took her around the Cape of Good Hope and west of the British Isles aboard the Dockwise Vanguard.  Upon completion of final preparations to install her in the Barents Sea this summer, she will support production operations at the world’s northernmost producing offshore oil field located approximately 80 kilometers offshore Ersvika.

When on location in May, the Goliat FPSO will be installed using 14 anchor lines.  First oil is planned for mid-2015.

The platform is a cylindrical floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facility. In the fjord outside Hammerfest, the deck of the transport vessel will be submerged to a depth of ten metres, enabling the platform to be floated off into the sea. Five tugboats will take over the work of moving the 170-metre high structure to Ersvika, south-west of Hammerfest.

ENI Norge says the Goliat FPSO was tailor-designed by Sevan for the Barents Sea and is the world’s largest and most advanced cylindrical oil production platform capable of withstanding 100-year Barents Sea storm conditions.

Once in production, the Goliat platform will be manned by about 40 people and operated from Hammerfest, says ENI Norge.