- To establish a new organization of more than 50 people has been a challenging task, but we are very pleased that all is in place by early May, says operations manager Sigfred Johansen.
His first staffs in the operations organization were in place already in early January, and since then there has been a gradual build-up of staff in TCM's administration complex at Mongstad.
Training and preparations
- May and June will be characterized by operational training and we will also start preparations of the utility systems. Start-up and operation of the amine plant will take later this year, "Johansen said.
Statoil is responsible for providing the operational organization of TCM and all technical and operational support needed to run the test plants. The operators are recruited from the refineries at Mongstad and Kalunborg, as well as from the offshore organization.
3 million workhours
The three million work hours milestone was just passed in the construction project headed by Statoil, and Technology Mongstad is now 70 percent complete. The facilities are being completed, and in recent weeks, several major prefabricated pipeline modules have arrived on barge from Orkanger and Murmansk.
Some of the major modules that are installed on the west side of the capture plants are more than100 tons. It is the flue gas from the refinery and combined heat and power plant that will be transported via these pipelines and into the capture facilities.
500 workers on site
In total, 500 people are presently working locally at the construction site of TCM at Mongstad. This includes personnel from Statoil's project, and contractors such as Aker Clean Carbon, Alstom, Reinertsen and their subcontractors.
TCM is the world's largest facility for testing and improving CO2 capture technologies. TCM DA is a joint venture between the Norwegian government, Statoil, Shell and Sasol, and the TCM organization include personnel from all these owner companies.
The first large piperacks are now installed near the capture plants at TCM