Statoil and its partners have submitted a plan for Norway's first unmanned platform to develop three oil and gas fields under its North Sea Oseberg Vestflanken 2 project.
The development, targeting the Alpha, Gamma and Kappa oil and gas fields, will provide in excess of 100 MMboe, says Statoil. They all sit around 8km northwest of the Oseberg field center.
The Oseberg Vestflanken development will consist of an unmanned wellhead platform with 10 well slots. The wells will be remote-controlled from the Oseberg field centre. Two existing subsea wells will also be reused.
“Oseberg Vestflanken 2 meets the current cost challenges and higher efficiency requirements with an innovative concept based on simplification. This is a pioneering project on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) that the industry can learn from,” says Ivar Aasheim, senior vice president for field development on the NCS.
Wellhead platforms with no facilities, helicopter deck or lifeboats represent a new solution in Norway, but it has been thoroughly tested in other areas, such as the Danish and Dutch continental shelves.
“We emphasize that this new concept will continue the high security level we have on our installations on the NCS,” says Aasheim.
Statoil has focused on cutting investment costs throughout the project planning phase, and has now reduced total investment costs by around NOK1 billion following the concept selection earlier this year. Maturing of the resource base, leading to higher volumes, has also helped realize the project.
“The costs of subsea templates have tripled during the last 10 years. Platform wells on a steel jacket lead to considerable cost reductions and secure a robust project economy,” says senior vice president for the projects cluster in Statoil Torger Rød.
Oseberg Vestflanken 2 is an important element in further developing the Oseberg infrastructure for the future, and is a result of long-term license decisions and uniform area development.
“Oseberg Vestflanken 2 will add 110 MMboe profitable, and will be an important contribution in reaching Statoil´s goal of maintaining the current production level until 2030 and beyond,” says senior vice president for the operations west cluster in Statoil Gunnar Nakken.
The well stream will be routed to Oseberg field centre via a new pipeline. Production start is scheduled for the Q2 of 2018.
Oseberg Vestflanken 2 is the first of three planned phases for developing the remaining reserves in the Oseberg area.
The licensees are: Statoil (operator) with 49.3%, Petoro (33.6%), Total (14.7%) and ConocoPhillips (2.4%).