Equinor ASA has begun production at the Statfjord Ost field in the North Sea, expecting to raise its output by 26 million barrels of oil equivalent.
"The project is completed with sound safety results and is expected to deliver within estimated cost, despite the inflation and weakened Norwegian krone", the majority state-owned company said in a press release Friday.
"Two new wells have been drilled from existing subsea templates, and three additional wells are to be drilled", Equinor added.
The current development of Statfjord Ost, first put onstream 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 in Statfjord Ost now uses pressure depletion due to the depressurization of the main Statfjord field, according to a factsheet on the government website Norskpetroleum.no. "The lifetime extension of the Statfjord C facility could result in additional wells and projects for Statfjord Ost", the factsheet says.
"Statfjord Ost produces oil from Middle Jurassic sandstone in the Brent Group. The reservoir has good quality and lies at 2,400 meters [7,874 feet] depth", the factsheet states.
"The well stream is transported in two pipelines to the Statfjord C facility for processing, storage and export", it says. "Statfjord Ost, Statfjord Nord and Sygna have a shared process module on Statfjord C.
"Oil is loaded onto tankers and gas is exported through 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 proves the importance of extending the life of mature fields and maximizing value creation from existing infrastructure on the Norwegian continental shelf", Camilla Salthe, Equinor senior vice-president for field life extension, said in a statement. "The project contributes to extending the life of Statfjord C to 2040.
"The profitability is high, and the value of increased production equals around NOK 20 billion [$1.9 billion] at the current oil price.
"This is good use of resources which provide ripple effects for Norwegian suppliers."
Statfjord Ost is part of the wider Statfjord area, which also comprises the Barnacle, Statfjord Nord and Sygna fields. Equinor is the operator in all the Statfjord fields, while the other Statfjord Ost developers are fellow Norwegian state-owned 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 1.4 percent.
Equinor had sold 28 percent of its Statfjord area stake 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 expertise into the Statfjord partnership", Salthe said in a media release March 20. "This will contribute to diversification and high value-creation from the Statfjord area in the years to come."
Equinor said in that announcement Statfjord has since 1979 produced over 5.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent and generated $156.8 million (NOK 1.675 billion) in gross revenues.
"We still have high expectations for Statfjord and by developing new ways of working we aim to extend the lifetime of the field towards 2040 and reduce emissions with 50 percent by 2030", Salthe added.
Equinor vice-president for field life extension Ketil Rongved said in Friday's announcement the company is aiming to be a leading operator of late-life fields on the Norwegian continental shelf.
"That means that we need 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 completed project 2020 and got approval from the Petroleum and Energy Ministry 2021.
