Equinor began production from the Utgard field, a cross border gas and condensate field in the North Sea with two wells; one on the UK side and one on the Norwegian side. The Utgard field will provide high value and low carbon intensity barrels.
During 1982 the field was firstly discovered and although several times interested parties thought of developing it, they didn’t proceed. However, in 2016, Equinor acquired the U.K. share of the discovery aiming to the field’s further development.
Namely, this is the company’s first step on leading a field development for recovering resources across the border between the Norwegian and U.K. continental shelves. The field development includes two wells from a subsea template which are connected to the Sleipner field through a pipeline and an umbilical. The template is located on the Norwegian side of the border, with one well on each side.
Recoverable resources are expected to reach 40 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) with daily production achieving the 43,000 boe approximately.
In fact, Utgard will utilize Sleipner’s facility for CO2 purification and storage.
Equinor will remotely operate the field from the Norwegian Sleipner field. From the latter field the well stream will be processed before dry gas is transferred to the market through the Gassled pipeline system, and liquids are sent through the existing pipeline to Kårstø for further export to Europe.
The field is operated by Equinor Energy (38.44%), Equinor UK (38%), LOTOS Exploration & Production Norge (17.36%) and KUFPEC Norway (6.2%).
In early 2019, the Norwegian oil and gas major, Equinor, began an exploration campaign on the UK continental shelf (UKCS) comprising five wells in 2019, which is a record number for the company.
