Alvheim

So it is nearly always Kirk who updates the blog. However, every once in a while I get the inkling or feel the guilt to do my part. That is usually when you get the rambling story that I have been keeping notes on for a month or so.

First, I have been out to Alvheim twice. It is incredible. What a lovely vessel. Alvheim is located on the edge of the Norwegian and UK sectors of the North Sea. As a matter of fact, on a very clear day, you can see one of our UK assets, the Brae platform. The map shows Alvheim at the top and Brae at the bottom.



The gas produced by Alvheim goes to the UK. The oil goes to tankers. Alvheim is an FPSO (Floating Production and Storage of Oil) vessel. The maximum number of personnel on board is 120 although we run near 80 normally. Alvheim is tied to a turret that is stationary and the vessel rotates around the turret according to the wind and waves as well as needs for orientation for offloading, etc. The vessel receives gas and oil from subsea through the turret. We offload oil every three days or so. Oil is received and processed before being stored on board. Gas is immediately treated and sent into the pipeline to Scotland.






The vessel is fantastic. It is 250 meters long and over 40 meters wide. Throughput is as much as a small refinery, around 140,000 barrels of oil per day. It is really phenomenal when you think of everything that happens on this ship. This picture shows the vessel in port in Haugesand. It does not normally sit this high in the water because of the load it normally has on board.

And now on to other random thoughts and observations. First, an update on church. We are very happy with our small Anglican church. Sidney sees Pastor Pete at school as well for a bible study and songs every Wednesday. I think the most unique thing about the church though is that those under 20 (and even under 12) out number those over 20. As you can imagine, if there is no Sunday school, worship is quite busy with all those little people running around.

Also, people bike everywhere here and in any weather. They also carry anything. I see two regulars while I am waiting at the bus stop every morning. Both older gentlemen, carrying any wide range of things, from shopping baskets, to bags, and sticks. One day we also saw someone biking with a bookshelf on their back. Reminds me a bit of a bicycle version of an Ikea commercial.

I am still combining the bus and walking to work. I walk about 10 minutes to the bus stop then ride the bus into Stavanger. The bus is always crowded now that school is back in, sometimes standing room only. I then walk another 20 minutes or so from the bus stop to work. The other day I got trash dumped on my head. The apartments here have underground trash receptacles, one each for paper, organic (food scraps), and general trash that you put the trash in and it goes underground into the large bin. A bit like and underground dumpster. Then they lift the whole thing out and it dumps out the bottom into the trash truck. Well, I was walking by one on the way to work and they opened the bottom as I walked by. At least I wasn’t alone, several other people were also walking by and we all got some of the contents of the organics bin dumped on us. It was great. Otherwise my walk to work is generally very nice as I walk through the oldest part of Stavanger and it is well maintained with flowers, etc.