Equinor Brings Utgard Field On Stream

Norway’s Equinor started up production on September 16 at the Utgard gas and condensate field straddling the boundary between the UK and Norwegian continental shelves.

The project was brought on stream ahead of its scheduled launch at the end of 2019, and at krone 900mn ($101mn) below its projected cost of krone 3.5bn, Equinor said on September 17.

Utgard lies in waters 115 metres deep and was first identified in 1982, although development plans were not greenlit until 2017. The project comprises a two-well subsea template connected via pipeline to the Sleipner T processing platform. Equinor and its partners are targeting 40mn barrels of oil equivalent and aim to produce at a plateau rate of 43,000 boe/day.

Norway has a 62% interest in Utgard, with the UK controlling the remaining share. The former’s holding to split between Equinor with 38.4%, Poland’s Lotos with 17.4% and Kuwait Petroleum with 6.2%. The UK share is also held by Equinor.

From the Sleipner T platform, Utgard’s gas will be transported to market using Norway’s offshore pipeline system, while liquids will be transported via an existing pipeline to the country’s Karsto hub, for further export to Europe. Utgard will also make use of Sleipner’s CO2 purification and storage capabilities.

“By reusing the existing infrastructure, we can, with relatively low investments, realise smaller discoveries that would not otherwise have been profitable enough to develop,” Equinor’s vice president for development and production in Norway, Arne Sigve Nylund, commented. “At the same time, we are adding valuable volumes to Sleipner.”

Wildcat finds gas near Skarv

Equinor also announced that a wildcat well had found gas in production licence 942, which it and its partners will consider how to develop, if at all. The well is close to pipelines, being 12 km southwest of the Marulk field, 38 km southwest of the Norne installation and 20 km northwest of the Skarv installation.

Well 6507/2-5 S encountered a total gas column of 40 metres in the Garn and Not formations, of which 30 metres of sandstones mainly of moderate reservoir quality in the Garn formation and tight sandstones in the Not formation.

Preliminary estimates place the size of the discovery between 8mn and 14mn m³ of recoverable oil equivalents. It is the first exploration well in the licence, which was awarded in APA 2017.