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The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has greenlighted the start of production in the Breidablikk field in the North Sea.
“Production is expected to start in October”, the regulator said in a press release Thursday. Equinor Energy AS operates the field, a co-project with ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS, Petoro AS and Var Energi AS.
Located 6.21 miles (10 kilometers) northeast of the Grane field, Breidablikk contains about 1.06 billion cubic feet (30 million standard cubic meters) of recoverable oil, or around 190 million barrels.
The projected startup this month is a year ahead of schedule, based on the 2021 announcement by Equinor Energy parent company Equinor ASA of the approval of the development plan.
“Field investments are approximately NOK 18.6 billion [$1.74 billion]”, Norway’s majority state-owned Equinor said in a news release June 29, 2021 about the plan’s approval. The developers submitted the plan 2020.
“The development of one of the largest undeveloped oil discoveries on the Norwegian continental shelf will create substantial value for Norwegian society and the owners, while securing high activity and jobs for many years ahead”, Arne Sigve Nylund, then executive vice-president for projects, drilling and procurement at Equinor, said in the media release.
Equinor said then “70 percent of the value creation in the development phase goes to Norwegian companies, and contracts totaling NOK 8 billion [$746.04 million] have already been awarded to companies in Norway”.
Designed to be tied back to the already producing Grane, Breidablikk consists of four subsea templates with 23 oil-producing wells. The petroleum processed at the Grane platform is to be piped to the Sture terminal, according to Equinor’s announcement of the development plan’s approval.
Kjetil Hove, Equinor vice-prez for exploration and production in Norway, said then, “There are still large resources left in the ground and we have a world-class infrastructure on the NCS [Norwegian Continental Shelf]”.
“The Breidablikk development shows how a competent Norwegian petroleum industry keeps developing innovative, cost-effective and future-oriented solutions with good social economy”, Hove added.
Equinor said then the Breidablikk field will have its own electricity cable, as well as fiber optic communication connected with the Grane platform. “This is a relatively new technology that can reduce the costs associated with any further development of the field, in addition to facilitating the use of docking stations for subsea drones on the seabed”, the 2021 announcement said.
Contractors for the project include Odfjell Drilling AS and Schlumberger Norge AS for drilling and well services, Floatel International Ltd. for floatel services, Aker Solutions ASA for subsea production facilities, H. Butting GmbH & Co. KG and Mitsui & Co. Norway AS for pipe deliveries, TechnipFMC PLC for pipelaying and subsea installation services, Alcatel Submarine Networks SASU for fiber-optic and electrical infrastructure and Wood PLC for modifications and upgrade of the Grane platform to enable receipt of oil from Breidablikk.
Breidablikk extends the life of the Grane platform, which has served the Grane field since 2003, according to Equinor. Grane was discovered 1991.
Earlier Equinor put onstream another North Sea oil and gas project. The Statfjord Ost field redevelopment project is expected to add 26 million barrels of oil equivalent to the company’s output, according to an Equinor press release August 25.
“Two new wells have been drilled from existing subsea templates, and three additional wells are to be drilled”, the news release said.
The current exploitation of Statfjord Ost, started up 1994, involves linking a new pipeline from Statfjord C, which is part of the main Statfjord field, to existing subsea templates, Equinor said.
Equinor officials touted the Statfjord Ost life extension project as an example of value maximization. “This proves the importance of extending the life of mature fields and maximizing value creation from existing infrastructure on the Norwegian continental shelf”, Camilla Salthe, Equinor senior vice-president for field life extension, said in a statement. “The project contributes to extending the life of Statfjord C to 2040.
“The profitability is high, and the value of increased production equals around NOK 20 billion [$1.87 billion] at the current oil price. This is good use of resources which provide ripple effects for Norwegian suppliers”.
Statfjord Ost is part of the wider Statfjord area, which also consists of the Barnacle, Statfjord Nord and Sygna fields. Equinor is the operator in all the Statfjord fields, while the other Statfjord Ost developers are fellow Norwegian state-owned Petoro with a 30 percent interest, Var Energi with 20.55 percent, INPEX Idemitsu Norge with 4.8 percent and Wintershall Dea Norge with 1.4 percent.
To contact the author, email jov.onsat@rigzone.com
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