North Sea Sverdrup project heading for third-phase subsea development

Equinor and its co-venturers are progressing the Johan Sverdrup 3 project in the Norwegian North Sea toward concept selection, Aker BP said in a results update.

The goal is to add further subsea wells that will be tied into existing offshore infrastructure serving the Johan Sverdrup field.

At the field center, gas export had to be suspended for three and a half weeks in the third quarter due to a scheduled turnaround at the Kårstø reception terminal in western Norway.

During this period, the produced gas was reinjected into two water injection wells, with the operation monitored to provide feedback for a water alternating gas enhanced oil recovery program that is due to start in 2026.

Also in the third quarter, four new production wells went online with two more set to follow by year-end and another two in the first part of 2025. This will increase the total number of production wells across the field to 41. 

There are further plans to add new lateral branches next year to four existing producers.

As for Aker BP’s operated field developments in Norway, subsea installation and drilling activity will start next year at the Utsira High project in the North Sea. This will connect the Symra accumulation to the Ivar Aasen platform, and Solveig Phase 2 to the Edvard Grieg platform, with production in both cases set to start in 2026.

A new two-well infill drilling campaign on the Edvard Grieg field should get underway in first-quarter 2025.

For the multi-field Yggdrasil development in the North Sea, Aker Solutions has started assembling the Hugin A utility module in Egersund, and it has completed the jacket’s second roll-up in Verdal. The living quarters have been fully assembled at Stord.

In Haugesund, assembly work has begun on the Munin topsides, with sections arriving from Thailand, while the jacket is taking shape in the Netherlands. Construction of the transformer and compensation station continues in Samnanger and Fitjar, while the power cable is coming together in Sweden.

The Subsea Alliance has installed water injection and MEG pipelines in the Yggdrasil area. Detailed planning for the production wells is advancing, as is work on concept selection for last year’s Øst Frigg Beta/Epsilon oil discovery as part of the overall Yggdrasil project.

In the southern Norwegian North Sea, Aker BP expects to drill a new side-track well shortly in the Tambar area.

Nearby in the Valhall area, the Noble Invincible completed a P&A campaign on eight legacy wells at the Hod A platform, with removal of the conductors scheduled for 2025. Hod A’s full decommissioning and removal should also be completed next year.

For the Fenris field development, the upper sections of all four wells were batch drilled followed in mid-September by drilling of the first well through the reservoir.

Finally, at the Skarv Satellite Project in the Norwegian Sea, the subsea rock installation campaign and pipelay operations have finished, while the first two vertical xmas trees have been completed. In parallel, other measures are underway to increase recovery in the Skarv area with two new infill wells set to come onstream by the end of the year.