Four major oil and gas firms have proven gas and condensate in the Norwegian Sea Ragnfrid North (6406/2-9 S) exploration well. Norwegian oil major Equinor and compatriot Petoro, US-based giant ExxonMobil and French Total, estimate recoverable resources at 6-25 million barrels of oil equivalent.
The Gullfaks partners have decided to invest NOK 2.3 billion (USD 269.0747 million) to drill seven new wells and thereby improve oil recovery by 17 million barrels with good profitability. The main Gullfaks field lies in block 34/10 in the northern part of the Norwegian North Sea.
Norway granted 83 blocks to explore for petroleum resources in the Norwegian continental shelf. The number of the blocks offered is a record, something that indicates a rising interest from oil companies in Norway’s oil sector. Equinor received the majority, with 13, while Aker BP and Lunding received 11 and 9 operatorships respectively.
Equinor has been awarded an exploitation permit for CO2-storage on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, according to Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. The storage solution is part of the large-scale carbon capture and storage-project in Norway. If approved, the storage is set to begin operations in 2023 or 2024, Gassnova, a governmental agency in charge of developing the CCS project, reported.
Norwegian energy giant Equinor has closed its Hammerfest liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility located on Melkøya Island in northern Norway. Equinor is making attempts to bring the facilities online again. The shutting down of the facility didn’t affect Equinor’s deliveries to its customers.
Equinor’s digital support centres were established to help create higher value, improve safety and reduce emissions from the company’s installations on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS). Thus, they have fruitful results from the first onshore-supported fields, according to Equinor’s statement.
On December 16, Equinor along with its partners sbegan the production from the Aasta Hansteen gas field in the Norwegian Sea. On December 17, gas from the Aasta Hansteen field is available to the market for the first time and together with the Polarled pipeline the field opens a new region for gas export to Europe.
Norwegian oil major Equinor has been the provisional winner of one of the three leases offered in the US government’s wind lease sale for an area offshore the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and east of New York. This new lease is part of the company’s commitment to taking a leadership position in renewable energy development in the US.
Kvaerner and Aker Solutions cut the first steel plate for phase 2 of the Johan Sverdrup offshore field development. The Johan Sverdrup development, including phase 1 and phase 2, is one of the largest current industry projects in Europe with around 150 000 man-years involved in developing the installations.
According to Equinor an LPG leakage took place at one of the Mongstad facilities, on 10 December. The unit with the leak was shut down, while depressurizing operations were conducted. A little later the same day, the leakage had stopped and the situation was normalised.
