Norwegian Gas Field to Start Ahead of Budget, Deadline
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has granted the licensees in Gullfaks (PL 050) consent to start-up the facilities on the Rutil gas deposit on Gullfaks South in the Tampen area in the North Sea. The development has turned out to be far less expensive than expected at just under Nkr3.8bn ($460mn), while the PDO estimate was Nkr4.863bn.
Production is scheduled to start in August/September 2016, several months earlier than the original plan (December 2016).
Rutil will be developed with a standard subsea template with four well slots (subsea template Q) with two gas production wells. The subsea template is tied-in to the existing infrastructure on the Gullfaks A facility for processing and export.
Statoil estimates that the in-place volumes are 17.9bn m³ of gas and 2mn m³ of condensate. Expected recoverable reserves are 11.9mn metric tons of oil equivalent.
“The NPD is very pleased with the development of the Rutil project, which is expected to finish in less time and at a lower cost than originally planned,” said Tomas Morch, assistant director of development and operations in the northern North Sea.
Tomas Morch (image credit: npd.no)
Before the oil price fell Statoil introduced a fast-track approach to developing smaller fields which do not require tailor-made equipment and designs, in order to make operations more profitable.
William Powell