Page 11 - Euroil Week 08 2020

EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil
Balderbra gas find estimates halved following duster
NORWAY
GERMANY’S Wintershall Dea and Norwegian partners Equinor and Petoro have slashed their resource estimates for the Balderbra gas discov- ery off Norway by more than half, after sinking a dry well.
The appraisal well was drilled around 113 km south-east of the major Aasta Hansteen field in the northern Norwegian Sea, to a depth of 3,816 metres in waters 1,207 metres deep. It found only traces of gas, and pressure communication with the discovery well was not confirmed, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) said on February 26. It has therefore been classified asdry.
Prior to drilling, the 2018 find was estimated to contain between 7.0 and 19bn cubic metres of gas and between 6.3 and 18.9mn barrels of oil equivalent (boe). Its size is now assessed at 3-8 bcm of gas and only 1.25-6.29mn barrels of condensate.
Wintershall Dea operates production licence 894 containing Balderbra with a 40% stake, while
Equinor also has 40% and Petoro a further 20%. The partners suffered a setback last month when a wildcat well they drilled at the licence also turned up dry.
Norway hopes to build on the success of the Equinor-operated Aasta Hansteen, which together with the satellite Snefrid North fields holds an estimated 56 bcm of gas. Aasta Han- steen started up in December 2018 and is slated to produce, with Snefrid North, 8.4 bcm per year of gas at plateau.
Aasta Hansteen’s launch, and the construc- tion of the 480-km Polarled pipeline needed to carry its gas, opened up a new region for gas exports in the Norwegian Sea. The Norwegian government is keen to promote more explora- tion in the area, so greater volumes of gas can be fed into Polared and exported to Europe.
Wintershall’s appraisal well was completed by the Scarabeo-8 rig, which is now en route to drill a wildcat at the Wintershall-operated production licence 836 S. ™
BP halts ops at North Sea platform after fire
UK
The platform produces between 30,000 and 35,000 boepd of oil and gas.
BP has been forced to halt production at its flag- ship ETAP platform in the North Sea following a power failure, the company told Reuters on February 19.
ETAP produces between 30,000 and 35,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) from seven oil and gas fields. These supplies are fed into the Forties oil pipeline system and the CATs gas terminal. BP also evacuated 66 of the 134 people working on the platform.
“We are working to resolve the power gen- eration issue,” the oil and gas major said in a statement.
BP later confirmed to the BBC there had been a small fire at the installation, 160 km from Aberdeen.
“Following initial investigations, we can con- firm there was a small fire confined to the exhaust section of a power generation unit on the ETAP platform,” BP said in a statement. “The plat- form went to muster where all personnel were
accounted for, with no injuries reported. The fire was rapidly extinguished by the on-board fire crews.”
The company continued: “The platform remains on emergency power generation with reduced heating and power capacities.”
NewsBase understands that the production is yet to resume at the facility as of press time.
Meanwhile, emergency crews were called out to the Shetland gas plant operated by France’s Total on February 25 after a fire at one of its power generator shelters. The “small electrical battery fire” broke out at 10:30 in the morning and was extinguished before emer- gency services arrived, a spokesman told local press.
“No one has been injured,” a spokesman said. “Whenever there is an incident of this sort the emergency services are automatically called.”
The gas plant supplies enough gas to power 2mn homes, according to Total. ™
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