Oil and gas company Wintershall Dea has received regulatory consent from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate to start up its Dvalin gas field in the Norwegian Sea.
Dvalin is a subsea tieback in the Haltenbanken area of the Norwegian Sea linking an underwater template to Equinor's Heidrun platform. Heidrun is a floating concrete tension-leg platform which started producing from Equinor's Heidrun field in 1995.
The development solution for Dvalin is to connect the well stream to Heidrun TLP for processing. Condensate will go to the platform and onward via the Heidrun storage ship to tankers for further transport to an oil refinery. Gas will be sent via Polarled pipeline to Nyhamna onshore plant.
Wintershall DEA estimates that it can recover 18 billion standard cubic meters of gas from Dvalin.
The NPD has said that Wintershall DEA's investment projection for the development is approx. NOK 11 billion (USD 1,2 billion). Wintershall DEA expects to start up in November/December.
The field is located in the production license PL435. It consists of two structures situated 3.5 kilometers apart. Dvalin øst was proven in 2010 and Dvalin vest in 2012.
"The development of Dvalin is a textbook example of good utilization of existing infrastructure in the area", says Tove Francke, Assistant Director for Development and Operations in the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.
Dvalin was planned as a development with four vertical production wells, two for the eastern part and two for the western part of the field. Drilling and completion of the four production wells started in August 2019 and completed in August 2020.