Developing gas and condensate discoveries in the Norwegian Sea
UTC main sponsor Equinor will spearhead lower emission investment on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) in the coming years.
As we will hear from keynote and technical session speakers from Equinor during UTC, subsea is a key part of the plan. In fact, Equinor is targeting 80% of its exploration around existing infrastructure. But it’s not at any cost. The company wants these developments to be lower emission and to match its NPV on the NCS in 2030 with 2022.
Subsea developments that use existing infrastructure is one key way to do that. One of Equinor’s latest announced developments, Halten Øst, is an example of this. Halten Øst is a cluster of six gas and condensate discoveries, located at the Åsgard field in the Norwegian Sea. On their own, they were not economically viable. So Equinor, and its partners Vår Energi, Spirit Energy and Petoro, have got together to develop this cluster as a subsea developing using existing infrastructure at Åsgard.
The area’s combined recoverable reserves are estimated at close to 16 million Sm3 of oil equivalents, or around 100 million barrels of oil equivalent, of which about 60% is gas that will be sent to Europe via Kårstø. Last month, the partnership has submitted a plan for development and operation to the Minister of Petroleum and Energy.
The project is planned to be developed in two phases. The first phase will be developed with six wells in the period 2024-2025 and the second phase is planned to be developed in 2029. Production of the first two wells is planned for 2025. The wells will then be put on stream as they are completed.
The Halten Øst development will involve about 3,000 man-years, spread over five years in the period 2022-2029. More than 90 per cent of the investments in the project will go to suppliers based in Norway.
Randi Elisabet Hugdahl, vice president, Åsgard operations, says, “Halten Øst is a subsea development with five subsea templates that will exploit established infrastructure on the Åsgard field, providing good resource utilisation with high value creation, low development costs and low CO2 emissions.”
Contracts and letter of intent have already been issued to Technip FMC and Aker Solutions and more are expected.
“Gas is an important energy carrier for Europe. Halten Øst utilises the existing gas infrastructure on the Norwegian shelf and will contribute important volumes that will generate significant value creation. The project is a good example of how Equinor, together with licensees and the authorities, works together across production licences to find smart solutions for the best possible resource utilisation from the NCS,” says Geir Tungesvik, executive vice president for Projects, Drilling and Procurement
The Halten Øst project is a clustered subsea development of six discoveries and three prospects on Haltenbanken that will be tied in to the Åsgard B semi platform via the Åsgard subsea compressor station system. The prospects will be added to the development if profitable discoveries are made.
57.7% Equinor (Operator)
24.6% Vår Energi
11.8% Spirit Energy
5.9% Petoro
