Offshore staff
STAVANGER, Norway – Equinor and Faroe Petroleum have agreed on cash-free exchange of interests in the Norwegian Sea and the Norwegian North Sea.
Faroe will take Equinor’s respective 28.9% and 14.8% stakes in the producing Vilje and Ringhorne East fields in the North Sea, and 17% and 32% of the Marulk and Alve fields in the Norwegian Sea.
In exchange, Equinor gets Faroe’s 7.5% stakes in the Njord redevelopment project and theBauge and Hyme subsea tiebacks to the Njord complex.
Siri Espedal Kindem, Equinor’s senior vice president for Operations North, said: “We are strengthening our operated position in the prolific Njord area, which we believe continues to have considerable upside potential. We remain operator and majority equity holder in Alve which is produced via Norne, another important part of the Norwegian Sea for us. And we are reducing our exposure to non-core and partner-operated assets.”
Production from the Njord field has been shut in since 2016 as the platform and storage vessel undergo upgrades. Operations should resume in 2020 with production continuing until 2040.
Equinor estimated remaining reserves for Njord and Hyme fields at 175 MMboe and 73 MMboe for Bauge.
Asset | Description | Equinor | Equinor | Operator |
Njord | Redevelopment project | 20% | 27.5% | Equinor |
Bauge, Hyme | Subsea tiebacks to Njord | 35% | 42.5% | Equinor |
Vilje | In production | 28.9% | - | Aker BP |
Ringhorne East | In production | 14.8% | - | Point |
Marulk | In production | 50% | 33% | Eni |
Alve | In production | 85% | 53% | Equinor |
Faroe expects to gain 7-8,000 boe/d in production from its acquisitions next year, at the same time gaining entry to new core areas (Alvheim and Norne), with a dual-target exploration well planned on the Alve license and a development well lined up for Marulk in 2019.
The company also announced that the jackupMaersk Interceptor has spudded the Cassidy exploration well 8/10-7 S in 66 m (216 ft) water depth in the southern Norwegian North Sea for operator Spirit Energy (Faroe 15%).
The Jurassic Ula formation prospect is in the PL405 Oda license and is being drilled back-to-back with production wells on the Oda field. Anticipated TVD is around 3,056 m (10,026 ft).
Faroe CEO Graham Stewart said a discovery could unlock further exploration prospectivity north of the Oda field.
Equinor has permission from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate to drill an exploration well in the southeastern part of the Norwegian Barents Sea. The semisubmersibleWest Hercules will spud well 7132/2-1, 175 km (109 mi) north of Vardø after completing appraisal drilling for Eni Norge in license PL229.
This will be the first well on PL 857, which was awarded in June 2016 under Norway’s 23rd licensing round on the Norwegian shelf.
12/05/2018
