On 14 October, the Oseberg Vestflanken 2 field in the North Sea came on stream. Remotely-operated from the Oseberg field centre, the new Oseberg H platform is the first unmanned platform on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, with recoverable resources at 110 million barrels.
Partners in the Oseberg Vestflanken 2 production licence include Norwegian Equinor Energy AS (49.3%), Petoro AS (33.6%), Total E&P Norge AS (14.7%) and ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS (2.4%). The field is located in the North Sea, some 8 kilometres north-west of Oseberg field centre and its volumes are 110 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Oseberg H is the first platform of its kind on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS), with no facilities, not even a toilet. The topside weighs only a good 1,000 tonnes, another example of simplification in practice. This platform only has the bare essentials,
…says Anders Opedal, Equinor’s executive vice president for Technology, Projects and Drilling.
The alternative to an unmanned wellhead platform would have been subsea wells. The new concept provides a competitive alternative in developing smaller discoveries, the company said.
Oseberg H is a pilot and our first unmanned platform. We are further developing the concept and believe that the next version will be even more competitive.
The 11 wells on Oseberg Vestflanken 2 will be drilled by the Askepott jack-up rig owned by the Oseberg licence. Nine wells will be drilled through the Oseberg H platform and two through an existing subsea template. Pipelines and subsea equipment have also been installed.
Maintenance campaigns are to be carried out once or twice a year on the platform. While the Askepott rig is drilling wells through the platform, the maintenance personnel will stay on the rig. Afterwards the personnel will stay on a vessel hooked up to Oseberg H by a gangway.
Operators in the Norwegian Continental Shelf have for a long time made considerable investments in a major infrastructure in connection with developing the big fields. Additional investments will yield a good return by phasing in smaller near-field oil and gas deposits through the existing infrastructure, and production of smaller volumes will be profitable while extending the field life and activity level of the big field.
The project was delivered at NOK 6.5 billion (2018 NOK), more than 20% lower than the cost estimate of the plan for development and operation (PDO). The breakeven price is reduced from USD 34 to below USD 20 per barrel, further strengthening a development that is already highly profitable.
