Equinor ASA has started production at the Statfjord Ost field in the North Sea, hoping to increase its output by 26 million barrels of oil equivalent.
“The project has been completed with good safety results and is expected to meet the estimated costs, despite inflation and the weakness of the Norwegian krone,” the state-owned company said in a press release on Friday.
“Two new wells have been drilled from existing subsea templates and three additional wells are to be drilled,” Equinor added.
The current Statfjord Ost development, first commissioned in 1994, also involves linking a new pipeline from Statfjord C, which is part of the main Statfjord field, to existing subsea templates.
Six months ahead of schedule, the completion increases the oil recovery rate to 63 percent from 58 percent, Equinor said.
Resource recovery at Statfjord Ost is now using pressure depletion due to the depressurization of the main Statfjord field, according to a fact sheet on the government website Norskpetroleum.no. “The life extension of the Statfjord C facility could lead to additional wells and projects for Statfjord Ost,” the fact sheet says.
“Statfjord Ost produces oil from Middle Jurassic sandstone in the Brent Group. The reservoir is of good quality and is located at 2,400 meters. [7,874 feet] depth,” the fact sheet states.
“The stream from the well is transported in two pipelines to the Statfjord C facility for processing, storage and export,” he says. “Statfjord Ost, Statfjord Nord and Sygna have a shared process module in Statfjord C.
“Oil is loaded onto tankers and gas is exported via Tampen Link and the Far North Liquids and Gas System pipeline to the UK.”
Value maximization
Equinor officials touted the completion of the Statfjord Ost life extension project as an example of value maximization.
“This demonstrates the importance of extending the life of mature fields and maximizing value creation from existing infrastructure on the Norwegian Continental Shelf,” said Camilla Salthe, Senior Vice President Field Life Extension at Equinor , in a statement. “The project contributes to extending the life of Statfjord C until 2040.
“The profitability is high and the value of the increased production is about NOK 20 billion [$1.9 billion] at the current price of oil.
“This is a good use of resources that provide dominant effects for Norwegian suppliers.”
Statfjord Ost is part of the wider Statfjord area, which also includes the Barnacle, Statfjord Nord and Sygna fields. Equinor is the operator of all Statfjord fields, while Statfjord Ost’s other developers are fellow Norwegian state Petoro AS with a 30 percent interest, Var Energi ASA with 20.55 percent, INPEX Idemitsu Norge AS with 4.8 percent and Wintershall Dea Norge AS with 4.8 percent. 1.4 percent.
Equinor had sold 28 percent of its stake in the Statfjord area to Okea ASA for $20.6 million (NOK 220 million) plus a three-year contingent payment. “With this transaction, we continue to optimize our oil and gas portfolio, welcoming an industrial player with late-life experience to the Statfjord partnership,” Salthe said in a March 20 press release. “This will contribute to the diversification and high value creation of the Statfjord area in the coming years.”
Equinor said in the announcement that Statfjord has produced more than 5.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent since 1979 and generated $156.8 million (NOK 1.675 billion) in gross revenue.
“We still have high expectations for Statfjord, and by developing new ways of working, we aim to extend the field’s lifetime towards 2040 and reduce emissions by 50 percent by 2030,” Salthe added.
Equinor’s vice president of field life extension, Ketil Rongved, said in Friday’s announcement that the company wants to be a leading late-life field operator on the Norwegian continental shelf.
“This means we have to find new ways of working to reduce costs,” Rongved said. “Together with our partners we have developed simpler and faster solutions while maintaining high quality.”
The partners agreed on the project being completed in 2020 and getting approval from the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy in 2021.
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