Skarfjell Seeks Gjoa Tie-Back
Russia-backed independent DEA says that operator Wintershall and other partners in Norway’s PL418 licence have selected a subsea tie-back to the Gjoa gas and oil field’s platform as their concept for development of the Skarfjell oil discovery in the Norwegian North Sea.
Skarfjell is situated in the northeastern North Sea, 20km southwest of the Gjoa platform. DEA has an 8% interest in Engie-operated Gjoa.
Based on the proposed plan, hydrocarbons from the Skarfjell reservoir will be transported from a subsea template to the Gjøa platform for processing and export. Gjoa would also provide gas lift services to the field and water injection for pressure support to a second template.
Skarfjell licence PL408 in the northeast North Sea (Map credit: DEA)
The Skarfjell partnership will submit their concept report to the authorities by February 16 2017. DEA has a 10% share in Skarfjell, alongside Wintershall (operator, with 35%), Capricorn (alias, UK independent Cairn Energy) and Bayerngas Norge (each 20%), plus EDF-owned Italian firm Edison (15%).
After an initial well in 2012, regulator NPD said in 2013 that Skarfjell contained 10-25mn m3 (63-158mn bbls) of recoverable oil.
Gjoa is not short of associated gas. In June 2016, Engie Norge's head of operations Hilde Adland pointed to record production there: "Gjoa was originally designed to export 17mn m3/d. That we are currently producing 20mn m³/d, 17.5% more than estimated, is a great achievement."
Mark Smedley