Offshore staff
FORNEBU, Norway – Aker BP is considering adding a new platform at the Ula field in the southern Norwegian North Sea, the company revealed in its latest results statement.
Although the company’s net production from the Ula area was only 8.4 MMboe/d during 4Q 2018, it sees significant resource potential via increased oil recovery from the Ula and Tambar fields, tiebacks of other discoveries includingKing Lear (recently acquired from Equinor), and from exploration.
Aker BP’s initial priority will be to improve the technical condition and extend the life of the existing Ula facilities to ensure stable performance.
Development of the Spirit Energy-operatedOda field, through a tieback to the Ula platform, is in its final stages, with drilling operations finishing late last year.
Production should get under way during the first half of the year.
Elsewhere in the southern North Sea, Aker BP achieved 4Q production from the Valhall area of 39.6 MMboe/d net, 10% up on the previous quarter, thanks to output from new wells and production efficiency.
Drilling from the IP platform continued with the G22 well coming onstream followed by drilling and completion of the G11 well featuring the new Fishbones technology in one section.
This involves extending titanium tubes from the main wellbore to create long channels, leading to improved reservoir productivity.
Test production from G11 should start this month, and if the outcome is successful, use of the technology could be extended to reduce the time to production for other new wells.
The first phase of a campaign to permanently plug old wells at Valhall concluded in early October, with the jackupMaersk Invincible transferring to the Valhall Flank North development to drill a new water injection well.
The rig has now redeployed to Valhall Flank South to drill two infill wells.
As for the Valhall Flank West development, engineering has finished for the topsides and jacket, and subsea engineering and planning are ahead of schedule for this summer’s offshore campaign.
02/06/2019
