Equinor presses ahead

Equinor has ambitious drilling, development and digitalisation plans explains Morton Eek, Communication Manager, Development, Production & Exploration, Norwegian Continental Shelf.

Q. What Equinor (formerly Statoil) discoveries on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) are being considered for development?
A. This year, Equinor expects to drill 25 to 30 exploration wells on the NCS, as operator and partner. We have also started the planning of next year’s exploration, and specific plans for the Barents Sea 2019 are ongoing. We have decided to drill the Korpfjell Deep prospect next year instead of this year.

Several evaluations from discoveries in all NCS basins are ongoing. For example, in 2017, Equinor and partners Eni and Petoro made a significant oil discovery in the Kayak well in the Johan Castberg licence in the Barents Sea. Totalling 25–50mn boe, this discovery may provide an additional 10% more volume for the Johan Castberg development. The discovery also opens other exploration opportunities in the same area. The Kayak well has, for the first time, proven resources in this type of play in the Barents Sea. Efforts are now being be made to find a commercial development solution for the Kayak discovery under the Johan Castberg licence, and to bring out other similar prospects in the Barents Sea.

In June 2018, Equinor and partners Lundin and Spirit Energy struck oil in the PL 167 licence at the Utsira High in the North Sea, in a well called Lille Prinsen (The Little Prince). The discovery is currently estimated to contain 15–35mn boe. This was the first Equinor discovery following Statoil’s name change this year. It is a good discovery, which we expect will be commercial. 

The results from the drilling also indicate an upside potential, as an additional discovery with very good reservoir quality was made above the main discovery. But the volume in this find has not been evaluated. When the full potential of the production licence has been clarified, development will be considered utilising existing infrastructure in the area. The Lille Prinsen well is located 200 km west of Stavanger and north-west of the Johan Sverdrup field.

There are also preparations currently for the start-up of our Barents Sea wells this year. In the late summer we intend to drill four wells as operator and one as partner. The wells will be drilled with two rigs, Songa Enabler and West Hercules. More updates will follow in August, likely during the ONS conference in Stavanger.

Q. How are plans for Equinor’s Johan Castberg field development progressing?
A. Development plans for Johan Castberg in the Barents Sea are progressing really well. The development received PDO [plan for development and operation] pproval by the Norwegian Parliament in June and is being submitted to the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy for formal approval. With first oil scheduled for 2022, the field has a production horizon of 30 years.

Capital expenditures for the project are NKr49bn [$5.88bn], and recoverable resources are estimated at 450–650mn boe. The field development consists of a production vessel and subsea system, including 30 wells distributed on 10 templates and two satellite structures. This is currently the largest subsea field under development globally.

Q. Have there been any notable recent discoveries?
A. The Lille Prinsen as mentioned is a good discovery as it is close to the Johan Sverdrup field. We also made several discoveries as partner this year. We are planning more exploration wells in 2018 which is exciting. As mentioned, the range of 25–30 wells is up from 19 last year.

Q. Are there any areas of technological innovation you would like to mention?
A. This is a vast area. A cornerstone is digitalisation development. For example, the Valemon platform is the first platform in Equinor’s portfolio to be remotely-operated from a control facility on shore – located in Bergen. This is a vital milestone for us. We have had land-based surveillance and control of offshore operations for a long time.

The remote control of Valemon marks an important step forward on our digitalisation journey. Valemon is specifically designed and constructed for remote control.

Equinor currently has no other platforms of this kind. But this solution will undoubtedly be considered for other small and medium-sized platforms in the future, and remote control will become a central building block.

Q. How are your cost reduction initiatives progressing?
A. As we move on the roadmap towards the ‘Remotely Operated Factory’ we anticipate driving down capex [capital expenditure] by 30%, reducing opex [operational expenditure] by 50% and initiatives like automated drilling will reduce costs by 15%.

Q. Finally, are any new carbon capture and storage initiatives (like Sleipner) being considered?
A. We are part of the consortium evaluating a project called Northern Lights, announced last year, headed up by the Norwegian authorities. 

In October 2017, Equinor, Norske Shell and Total E&P Norge signed an agreement as equal partners for development of carbon capture and storage on mature areas of the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

In June 2017, Gassnova awarded Statoil (now Equinor) the contract for the first phase of the CO2 project which could reach a capacity of about 1.5mn t/y. The project will be designed to accommodate additional CO2 volumes, aiming to stimulate new commercial carbon capture projects in Norway, Europe and across the world.

Photo: Morton Eek, Communication Manager, Development, Production & Exploration, Norwegian Continental Shelf, Equinor

Source:  Ole Jørgen Bratland/Statoil