Aker BP has started production from the Viper-Kobra development, a subsea tieback to the Alvheim floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel in the Norwegian North Sea.
Viper-Kobra consists of two separate discoveries, containing 9 MMboe jointly; Kobra, discovered in 1997, and Viper, discovered in 2009. Both are in production license 203 and are part of the Alvheim field. Alvheim was developed by Det norske, which recently merged with BP's Norwegian business, to become Aker BP.
The development, which saw the two wells tied into the Volund manifold, cost about US$220 million (NOK 1.8 billion) and included drilling two wells, subsea installation, pipelines and hook-up.
The two wells were drilled from a four-well subsea template, leaving space for future wells. The estimated output of the two wells is planned to an average initial 15,000 boe/d. Aker BP is operator with 65% interest, with partners ConocoPhillips (20%) and Lundin Norway (15%).
The project was developed on time and within budget, says Aker BP. “The Viper-Kobra project is developed on time, on budget and is a small, but important project for Aker BP. Viper-Kobra leverages on the existing infrastructure in the Alvheim area, thus ensuring maximum utilization of the adjacent resources and will contribute to maintain the Alvheim production at a high level”, says Geir Solli, SVP Operation at Aker BP.