Page 11 - Euroil Week 09 2020

EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil
Equinor makes fresh North Sea oil find
NORWAY
The field may be tied to the nearby Gundrun field.
NORWAY’S Equinor has struck oil near the Gudrun field in the central North Sea after drill- ing a pair of wells, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) reported on March 2.
The 15/3-12 A and 15/3-12 S wildcat wells were sunk 11 km south-east of Gudrun and both encountered oil. Preliminary estimates indicate the discovery of 1.0-2.7mn cubic metres (6.3- 17.0mn barrels) of oil, the NPD said.
No formation tests were performed but extensive amounts of data were collected and samples taken, according to the directorate. The discovery’s tie-back to Gudrun will be consid- ered, it said.
Gundrun came on stream in 2014, but pro- duction decline set in just three years later. Oil output averaged 34,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2019, down 17% y/y, while gas extraction totalled 1.49bn cubic metres, marking a drop of 14%.
Equinor operates production licence 025 (PL025) containing Gudrun with a 36% stake, while UK-based Neptune Energy has 25%, Aus- tria’s OMV has 24% and Spain’s Repsol has 15%.
Together the partners have sought to max- imise recovery using water injection, infill drilling and other enhanced oil recovery (EOR)
techniques. They took a final investment deci- sion (FID) in July last year on the second stage of the field’s development, valued at $280mn, aimed at extending its production life by three years until 2032. The project involves the con- struction of a new water injection plant and the drilling of a new well.
The group also committed to drilling new wildcats at PL025 in the hope of finding new resources that could be tied back to Gudrun. They are also looking to hook up the earlier Sigrun oil and gas find to the field’s infrastructure.
The new discovery, which Equinor has named Sigrun East, marks the company’s first on the Norwegian shelf this year.
“Sigrun East is a win-win. Exploring near existing infrastructure we prove resources that can be profitably realised, while producing with low CO2 emissions,” Equinor’s senior vice presi- dent for exploration in Norway and the UK, Nick Ashton, said in a company statement.
The latest two wells were drilled to depths of 3,771 and 3,999 metres below the sea level, in waters 109 metres deep. They were completed by the West Phoenix rig, which will now move on to drill an exploration well at the Neptune-operated PL889. ™
Consultant hired for UK’s first CCS project
UK
The CCS project, the UK’s first, is due to start operations in 2024.
THE UK’s first carbon, capture and storage (CCS) project is moving forward, with its developer Pale Blue Dot Energy (PBD) having awarded a contract for consultancy and design work for its first phase.
The Acorn CCS is slated to begin capturing carbon from the St Fergus terminal in Scotland and storing it in depleted reservoirs in 2024. Maidenhead-based Costain announced on March 2 it had been hired for consultancy ser- vices. This will include concept design and front- end engineering design (FEED) support.
In its statement, Costain said the re-use of existing high-capacity on- and offshore pipelines could trim as much as GBP750mn ($961mn) off the project’s budget.
Acorn CCS also aims to generate hydro- gen from North Sea gas, providing a new clean source of the fuel for the UK’s heating network. In February PBD secured a GBP2.7mn grant from the government to test the conversion technology.
Oil and gas producers Chrysaor, Royal Dutch
Shell and Total are also supporting the scheme. Costain did not disclose the value of its con- tract. However, the current, planning stage of the Acorn project has secured GBP4.8mn from the government and the same amount of funding
from the companies involved in the venture. “We are working extremely hard alongside our study partners: Chrysaor, Shell and Total, to deliver the different phases of this project to a timeline that is fully aligned with the government’s emission reduction targets and should achieve first injec- tion of CO2 into the Acorn store by 2024,” Acorn CCS project director Russ Gilbert commented. “In order to achieve this, we need to work with high-performing organisations that understand
the importance of this work.”
“Costain is one such organisation which has
played a key role in helping us get the project to this stage due to their deep understanding of the existing oil and gas infrastructure, its re-use for CO2 service, associated technical processes and their experience in managing and delivering complex work programmes.” ™
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