Offshore staff
COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Maersk Oil is entering its first cross-border tie-in project in the North Sea. This will involve taking gas and condensate from DONG Energy’s Trym field offshore Norway to Maersk’s Harald platform in the Danish sector for processing, and subsequent export to shore.
The company claims this agreement also opens the way to further tie-ins within Danish waters and across borders.
The Harald processing platform is in northern Danish waters, while Trym is just 6 km (3.7 mi) away.
Maersk will receive extra revenue from Trym’s gas and condensate, which will help cover the costs of running the platform, delaying its eventual abandonment.
“We will be able to recover more from the Harald reservoir when otherwise we would have had to shut the platform down earlier,” said Philip Wodka, a director in Maersk Oil’s Danish operations.
For the Trym partners, the use of Maersk Oil’s infrastructure allowed speedier development, without the need to install a dedicated platform.
“The agreement creates precedence in terms of our tariff breakdown for future tie-in negotiations. We have since seen other opportunities on the horizon for optimizing the use of our infrastructure,” Wodka said. “Now that we have secured the first agreement, it will be easier to strike future deals. Norwegian gas import is one opportunity being pursued.”
Integrating Norwegian and Danish gas infrastructure could also expand Norwegian export capacity for gas while helping prolong Denmark’s gas self-sufficiency, Maesrk adds.
01/21/2011
