Det norske is planning a US$238 million development for the Viper-Kobra fields near Alvheim in production license (PL) 203, in the central North Sea, off Norway.

The project consists of two small, separate discoveries in the Alvheim area, Viper and Kobra, which have a possible connected reservoir. The two reservoirs contain about 4 MMbbl of recoverable oil each. Total reserves are estimated at 9 MMboe, including some gas.

According to Det norske’s plan, the two will be tied in with a new template via the Volund infrastructure back to the Alvheim FPSO. The company estimates there will be an average daily rate of 7500boe that will be flowing into the FPSO around December 2016.

The development consists of drilling two wells, a new subsea installation with a pipeline tied into the Volund manifold, pipelines and hook-up.The four well slots are designated for one well from Viper and one from Kobra, in addition to two well slots intended for potential future wells in the area.

First contracts will be awarded this month, with drilling scheduled to begin during spring 2016. Installation of the templates and hook-up is scheduled for September 2016 and production start-up is planned for year-end 2016 or early 2017.

The Alvheim field comprises the Kneler, Boa and Kameleon discoveries, which are estimated to contain total recoverable resources of 180MMboe. Oil is transported from the field with a shuttle tanker, and associated gas is exported through the Scottish Area Gas Evacuation (SAGE) system to St Fergus in Scotland.

“The existing infrastructure in the area renders this project profitable. The key is to develop both discoveries with the same infrastructure, thus ensuring maximum utilization of the resources”, says Øyvind Bratsberg Det norske SVP, technology and field development. “Even though this is probably one of the smallest discoveries on the Norwegian shelf being developed the profitability is good, and the project is important to us. The development has been approved in Det norske, and the partners have given their consent.

Det norske is the operator of Alvheim with 65% interest. Partners include Norske ConocoPhillips (20%) and Lundin Norway (15%).

In December, the Petroleum Safety Authority of Norway granted Det norske oljeselskap ASA consent to use the Transocean Winner mobile drilling facility to drill two new subsea production wells on the Alvheim field.The wells, 24/6 K-6 and 24/6 A-5 are located in Blocks 24/6 and 25/4 in the central part of the North Sea, west of Heimdal and close to the boundary with the UK sector. The consent also covers workover of production well 24/6 B-2.

Source: www.oedigital.com

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