Page 26: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Mar/Apr 2021)

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INTERVIEW RUNE MODE RAMBERG

A LEADING

LIGHT

SUBSEA

By Elaine Maslin here are not many of the leading edge subsea process- while Åsgard subsea compression cost a lot, so much more is ing projects Rune Mode Ramberg has not been in- now known and understood that future projects can - and will volved in at some level. - be much simpler and cheaper, he says.

T

The list includes Tyrihans subsea pumping, Tordis subsea Ramberg studied at the Norwegian University of Science and separation, studies on the Ormen Lange subsea compression Technology (NTNU), in Trondheim. His interest then was in project, Jack St. Malo boosting, Åsgard subsea compression, rotary dynamics. He worked on areas that were not mainstream

Troll Phase 3 and now the subsea scope on the Northern at the time, such as the dynamic behaviour of multiphase

Lights carbon capture and storage (CCS) project. In terms of pumps, and went on to do a PhD on multiphase pumps, sup- subsea technology, there’s not much in this space that doesn’t ported by a scholarship from Statoil (now Equinor). come across his desk. In 1997, he started work at Statoil, on rotating equipment.

But despite the advances he’s seen in subsea processing, he After working on the Norne FPSO commissioning and start-up, says more needs to be done to help the industry - as a whole - focusing on the turbines and compressors, he was soon back on learn about what has been achieved and what the possibilities multiphase pumping, initially topsides, on Gullfaks, but then are in this space. also qualifying subsea pumps for Tyrhans and then as Statoil’s “What’s needed is to spread the knowledge that we have a man on Shell’s Ormen Lange subsea compression project. lot of operating hours and experience,” he says. “There are Ramberg then had a secondment at Chevron, working in still people in oil companies that are making decisions, think- Houston on subsea pumping on the Jack St. Malo develop- ing that subsea pumping is immature.” The experience and ment. He stayed on in Houston as technology manager for learnings to date will also help drive costs down. For example, Statoil, working on the Paleogene in the US Gulf of Mexico, 26 OFFSHORE ENGINEER OEDIGITAL.COM