Page 16 - EurOil Week 46

EurOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES EurOil

Equinor gets greenlight for Snorre

redevelopment

NORWAY NORWAY’S Equinor has got the all-clear from oil reservoirs to boost recovery. Earlier this year
the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) to Equinor picked TechnipFMC to lay the pipeline.
Production at Snorre launch redevelopment work at the Snorre oilfield “The expansion of Snorre is a result of tireless
has been in decline in the Norwegian North Sea. work by both the companies and the authorities;
since 2003. Production at Snorre started in 1992 and work which has been ongoing for close to 15
reached its peak in 2003 of over 234,000 bar- years,” the NPD said in a statement.
rels per day. Output has undergone significant Equinor operates Snorre with a 33.3% stake,
decline since then, averaging only 52,000 bpd while Norway’s state-owned Petoro has 30%,
last year. Eni subsidiary Var Energi has 18.6%, Japan’s
Equinor filed a plan to redevelop the field in Idemitsu Petroleum has 9.6% and Germany’s
2018, estimating its remaining recoverable oil at Wintershall Dea has 8.6%. In their redevelop-
195mn barrels at the time. The project involves ment plans, the group said they were targeting
adding six new subsea templates that will be tied first oil from the project in mid-2021. Equinor
to the Snorre-A platform. They will host 24 new confirmed in October that the project was still
wells, including 13 for production and 11 that on schedule.
will serve as water-alternating injectors. Thanks to the new investment, Snorre is
The project also involves the construction expected to continue producing beyond 2040.
of a pipeline from the Gullfaks fields, supply- Originally the field was estimated only to last
ing Snorre with gas that can be reinjected into until between 2011 and 2014. ™

Ithaca moves ahead with

Abigail plans

UK ITHACA Energy, an Aberdeen-based subsidiary either a jack-up or semi-submersible rig. It will
of Israel’s Delek, is moving ahead with plans to also involve the installation of a new manifold
Abigal will have a eight- develop the Abigail oil and gas field in the UK and a 12-km long pipeline.
year production life. North Sea. Drilling is slated to commence no sooner
The company said on its website it had applied than the first quarter of 2022, with production
to the UK Department for Business, Energy and due to begin in the third or fourth quarter of that
Industrial Strategy (BEIS) for permission to year.
proceed with the project. It has also submitted The second stage, meanwhile, will involve the
an environmental statement to the Oil and Gas sinking of a new well, also to be hooked to the
Authority (OGA) as part of the procedure. manifold. The timing of this second phase will
Abigail is situated in the central North depend upon performance at the first.
Sea some 233 km east of Peterhead. Pending The FPF-1 platform also handles oil and gas
approval, Ithaca plans to develop the deposit from the Stella, Harrier and Vorlich fields. Sup-
as a subsea tieback to the FPF-1 platform in the plies are then pumped via the Norpie and CATS
Greater Stella Area. pipeline systems to market.
In its environmental statement, Ithaca esti- Ithaca had a busy schedule lined up for 2020,
mated Abigail’s recoverable reserves at 3.9- but most of these plans were scuppered follow-
8.3mn barrels of oil equivalent (boe). The project ing the collapse in prices. It had hoped to take
is anticipated to have an eight-year production a final investment decision (FID) on the sec-
life. ond phase of an enhanced oil recovery (EOR)
The field would host two wells during two project at the North Sea’s Captain field but this
separate stages. The first would entail the re-en- move was delayed. It also had plans for a series
try and completion of an appraisal well using of wells. ™

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 46 19•November•2020