Page 9 - Euroil Week 02 2020

EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil
EnQuest eyes early shutdown at Alma-Galia
UK
UK player EnQuest has filed a draft plan to decommission the Alma and Galia fields in the North Sea less than five years after achieving first oil.
The decommissioning work covers all sub- sea equipment and pipelines, as well as the EnQuest Producer floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. The vessel began pumping oil from the fields in October 2015, and EnQuest initially claimed it might stay in opera- tion for 15 years.
The Alma-Galia project was sanctioned by EnQuest back in 2011, when Brent oil averaged more than $110 per barrel. EnQuest initially considered a second development phase, but axed this plan following the steep decline in oil prices in late 2014. Since then, the project has suffered faster natural decline than anticipated, as well as a series of problems with electric sub- mersible pumps.
Despite replacing three pumps in 2018, EnQuest decided it was uneconomical to con- tinue production for more than five years.
The Alma-Galia project was valued at $850mn at the time of its approval. It consists of seven production wells and one water injection well, tied back to the FPSO.
EnQuest’s decommissioning plan involves the complete removal of the EnQuest Producer for recycling. Mooring chains will be cut locally to the mooring pile and piles below the seabed. The Alma manifolds and will also be removed completely, with piles cut below the seabed, along with wellhead pressure systems. All pipe- lines will be cleaned and flushed, and together with riser bases, recovered to shore. Associated concrete mattresses and grout bags will also
be taken away, and wells will be plugged and abandoned.
The plan will be reviewed by the UK Oil & Gas Authority.
Meanwhile in Norway
While EnQuest has opted to decommission Alma-Galia earlier, state-owned Equinor this week has announced plans to delay the shutdown of the Statfjord oil and gas field. The North Sea field has been flowing since 1979. Production maxed out at around 715,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 1993, but had slumped to under 57,000 boepd by 2018.
However, Equinor intends to revive the project, which it says still has “considerable” production potential. Together with its part- ners Var Energi, Spirit Energy, Petoro, Idemitsu Petroleum and Wintershall Dea, it has greenlit a plan to push back the decommissioning of the Statfjord A platform by five years until 2027. The service lives of the Statfjord B and C facilities will also be extended beyond 2035.
Equinor said a further 100 wells would be drilled at the site between now and 2030 in order to maintain production at the current level. All three of the field’s platforms will require exten- sive upgrades to achieve this, it said.
“We have a responsibility to society and our owners for realising the full value potential from our producing fields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS),” Equinor’s vice-pres- ident for offshore Norway, Arne Sigve Nylund, commented. “Statfjord is a world-class oil and gas field that has supplied the world with huge amounts of energy.” ™
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