Norway Clears Oseberg H for Take-Off
Norway's upstream regulator, Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), has cleared Equinor-operated Oseberg H to start production next month.
Oseberg H is a new type of facility on the Norwegian Shelf. NPD said it was "positive that the licensees have developed a new, cost-effective development solution with an unmanned wellhead platform."
The plan for development and operation for Oseberg vestflanken 2 was approved in June 2016. In addition to Oseberg H with its associated pipelines and umbilical, the plan includes continued use of the G4 subsea template, along with modifications on the Oseberg field centre.
Planned investments costs originally totalled Nkr 8.2bn ($1bn) but have since been reduced to Nkr 6.5bn. The development increases the recoverable reserves in Oseberg by 62mn barrels of oil equivalent and 7.8bn m3 gas, NPD said.
Oseberg has produced since 1986. It is operated by Equinor with 49.3%; partners are state holding Petoro 33.6%, Total 14.7% and ConocoPhillips 2.4%. Saleable production at 100% in 2017 was 8.13mn m3 of oil equivalent, of which 3.49mn m3 was oil and 1.18mn m3 was natural gas liquids, along with 3.46 billion m3 of gas - making it one of the larger, but not top, producing gasfields offshore Norway.