The undersea Bauge field in the Norwegian Sea with estimated recoverable reserves of 50 million barrels of oil equivalent has started production. Bauge is linked to the newly updated Njord platform.
Bauge consists of two oil producers in a subsea jig, plus pipelines and an umbilical connecting the wells to the Njord A platform, Equinor, operator and one of the licensees in the field, said in a statement. Other licenses include Wintershall Dea, Vår Energi and Neptune Energy.
“The subsea installation was built and installed without a single HSE incident. I am very proud of this and would like to thank our suppliers, especially the main suppliers Randaberg Industries, Ocean Installer and OneSubsea. This shows that the vision of zero damage is possible. Capital expenditures totaling NOK 4.6 billion ($439 million) the project was delivered within budget,” says Trond Bokn, Equinor’s senior vice president of project development.
The Norwegian content of the Bauge project exceeds 90 percent. The wells were delivered faster than expected by Transocean and Schlumberger, the statement said.
The project has been carried out in parallel with the extensive upgrade of Njord A (Aker Solutions) and Njord Bravo FSO (Aibel).
“The Njord upgrade allows us to link valuable new discoveries like Bauge. By leveraging existing infrastructure, we can achieve cost-effective development of small-sized discoveries in line with the company’s strategy. We are planning further activities of exploration in the area,” says Grete B. Haaland, senior vice president of northern exploration and production.
The Njord field became operational in 1997. In 2016, the facility was brought ashore for an extensive upgrade and in December 2022 the field became operational again.
Equinor recalled that the field will now produce for another 20 years, and the ambition is to produce roughly the same volume of Njord and Hyme as the fields have produced to date, around 250 million barrels of oil equivalent.
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