Norway's Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has approved the plan for development and operation (PDO) of the Snorre Expansion Project on the Norwegian continental shelf in the North Sea, Equinor announced Thursday.
The project, which involves one of the fields with the largest remaining reserves of Equinor's oil producing fields on the Norwegian continental shelf, encompasses a comprehensive subsea development, upgrading of the Snorre A installation, increased gas injection and gas import for injection.
'Snorre Expansion Project is the largest project for improved recovery on the Norwegian continental shelf and provides valuable production and activity benefitting Equinor, partners and society,' the company said in a press release.
The Snorre field was originally estimated to produce until 2011–2014. Now the field life has been extended beyond 2040, and the recovery rate has increased from 46 to 51 percent, according to the statement.
'Investments of just above NOK 19 billion ($2.35 billion) will increase recovery from the Snorre field by almost 200 million barrels,' it said.
Scheduled to start production in 2021, the project will be operated and maintained by the existing Snorre organization in Stavanger while Fjordbase in Floro will continue to handle supplies.
Located in the Tampen area in the northern part of the North Sea, the Snorre field was discovered in 1979 and came on stream in 1992.
When the PDO was submitted last December, estimated production was 750 million barrels of oil, the statement said, adding so far, the Snorre field had produced 1.4 billion barrels of oil.
Equinor has a 33.27 percent stake in the project as the operator, while Petoro has 30 percent, and ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Norway has 17.44 percent. The other three partners are Idemitsu Petroleum Norge (9.6 percent), DEA Norge (8.57 percent) and Point Resources (1.1 percent).
Subject to final regulatory approval, the partners have awarded contracts for the subsea production system to TechnipFMC, fabrication and installation of the pipeline bundle system to Subsea 7, Snorre A modifications to Aibel, drilling and well operations to Transocean and marine installations to Deep Ocean, according to the statement.
By Hale Turkes
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr