Italian operator Eni will shut down production at its Goliat oilfield off northern Norway in September in order to complete outstanding work on the floating production unit at the Barents Sea field.

Production from the cylindrical Goliat platform will be shut in after the summer and Eni will connect a flotel to the unit in order to provide sufficient bed capacity to perform outstanding commissioning work.

Eni has informed Norwegian authorities that it is planning for a turnaround in September and that the company is in the market for an accommodation unit that is likely to be hired for a period of up to three months.

Upstream has learned that Eni plans for a production shutdown of three to four weeks. However, issues such as weather and unforeseen extra work could prolong the period.

The Goliat floating production, storage and offloading unit has been subject to several shutdowns since its start-up in April 2016.

Last August, production was closed for several weeks after a power outage. Earlier the same week, union representatives in Eni and senior safety officials on the Goliat platform urged management to shut in production in order to iron out teething problems and complete outstanding commissioning work on the cylindrical floater.

In February, Eni conducted a controlled production shutdown for maintenance on a valve in the gas compression system on the floater.

The stoppage followed a string of operational disruptions, including a recent five-week outage caused by damage to a crude offloading hose on the FPSO.

Leader of environmental group Bellona, Fredric Hauge, who has been critical to the project since it was sanctioned years ago, said latest shutdown illustrates how severe the problems are at Goliat.

“Eni still has no control over this project,” he told Upstream.

Concerns have been raised about the profitability of the project, but Eni sources told Upstream that a tie-in of the Snadd discovery and two other prospects to be drilled this year – Blaamann and Goliat Eye – will make Goliat economically viable for the company.

In addition, Goliat is an important strategic investment for Eni that will give the company further opportunities in the Barents Sea, which it has identified as a core area, one source said.

After the start-up issues at Goliat, Eni put Philip Hemmens, who is Eni Norge’s third managing director in four years, in charge. He is said to have improved the situation for workers onboard Goliat and bolstered trust in the management.

Union representatives have expressed that the situation seems to have improved and that the new leadership appears to be handling the difficulties better than their predecessors.

However, there have still been several unplanned shutdowns at the unit.

The field, which has production capacity of 100,000 barrels per day, was producing 97,000 bpd when it was shut down on 29 December. Eni holds a 65% operating stake in production licence 229 that hosts Goliat, with state-controlled Statoil holding the remaining 35%.

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