Statoil and its partners have submitted the plan for development and operation of the Byrding oil and gas discovery in the Norwegian North Sea.
Statoil Petroleum operates the project with 45% stake. Wintershall Norge, Idemitsu Petroleum and Engie E&P Norge hold 25%, 15%, and 15% interests respectively.
The oil and gas discovery field, earlier known as Astero, is located about 4km North of Fram and 27km southwest of Gjoa.
Water depth in the region is 360m and the reservoir is present 3,100m below the sea level.
The expected capital expenditure for the project is around NOK1bn ($121m), with projected recoverable volumes of about 11 million barrels of oil.
The development of Byrding includes two-branch well being drilled from existing Fram H-Nord subsea template through which oil and gas from Byrding will flow to Troll C.
Oil and gas will be piped from there through existing pipelines to Mongstad and Kollsnes respectively. The oilfield is expected to come on stream in late 2017. And it is expected that the project will yield returns in the same year, the investments are made.
Statoil project development senior vice president Torger Rød said: “Byrding shows that successful improvement efforts in Statoil, and in this case particularly within drilling and well, allow new development projects to be realised,” Rød says.
“Combined with the use of an available well slot in an existing subsea template this reduces the costs of the project substantially. The project is profitable also in the current oil price environment."
The company estimates that the oilfield will remain on stream for 8 to 10 years.
Statoil senior vice president for Operations West Gunnar Nakken said: “Byrding will add new profitable volumes from the Troll / Fram area, boosting the activity and production on the Troll C platform."
Image: Statoil’s development plan for Byrding oil and gas discovery in the North Sea. Photo: Courtesy of Statoil.