Norwegian energy company Equinor announced that the Gullfaks partners have decided to move forward with a NOK 2.3 billion plan to drill seven new wells at Norway’s fourth largest oil field and improve oil recovery by 17 million barrels.
“Our ambition is to maintain profitable production from the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) for several decades. Wells that can be drilled fast and at a low cost, near existing infrastructure, will be a major contributor,” said Equinor’s executive vice president for Development and Production Norway, Arne Sigve Nylund, who presented an amended plan for development and operation (PDO) on behalf of the licence partners to the minister of petroleum and energy, Kjell-Børge Freiberg, at the Sandefjord Conference on Tuesday.
The wells will be drilled in the Shetland Group, a carbonate reservoir that lies above the main reservoir at the Gullfaks field in the Tampen area offshore Norway in the northern part of the North Sea. Water depth in the area is 130-220 meters.
Gullfaks was proven in 1978, and the plan for development and operation (PDO) of the fireld's first phase was approved in 1981. The PDO for Gullfaks phase II was approved in 1985, and production started in December 1986. The original PDO had set out a field life up to 2005, but in 2016 a plan for extending the field life to 2034 was approved.
Drilling on Gullfaks is challenging due to the carbonate reservoir, Equinor said. A well test in 2012 proved that also this reservoir had an oil production potential. The Gullfaks partners have invested more than NOK one billion in production wells in this formation since 2013, which have so far produced more than six million barrels of oil from Shetland/Lista phase 1.
As this reservoir could potentially produce more oil by use of water injection, the authorities requested the Gullfaks partners to submit an amended PDO in 2019.
Gullfaks A (Photo: Equinor)
The Gullfaks partners – Equinor (51% - operator), Petoro (30%), OMV (19%) – are now ready to recover even more resources by use of water injection and new production wells in the Shetland/Lista phase 2 development. A total of seven horizontal wells is planned to be drilled by use of existing drilling facilities on Gullfaks.
The reservoirs are located over the Gullfaks field, 1700-2000 metres below the seabed, and they have been producing since 2013. Now the plan is to increase production by injecting water for pressure support.
The plan also describes further recovery from the underlying main reservoirs on Gullfaks.
“A further development of Shetland/Lista with water injection is a good contribution to increased oil recovery on Gullfaks,” said Arvid Østhus, the NPD’s assistant director for development and operations in the northern North Sea.
“The project is also a positive example that, in some cases, tight reservoirs can be developed profitably through good studies and new technology. The NPD has conducted a mapping study which shows that there are significant resources present in tight reservoirs on the Norwegian Shelf. The Shetland/Lista project shows that it is possible to extract such resources.”
“These formations that used to pose a challenge are now due to producing at a break-even below US$30 per barrel – I find that to be a nice bonus from Gullfaks,” Nylund said.
The oil from Shetland/Lista is a small contribution to the total Gullfaks reserves, but a major contributor to the remaining field potential, Equnior said.
Furthermore, the oil company added, the project deepens its knowledge of carbonate reservoir production, which can be used in other parts of the world.
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