Equinor cleared to proceed with major Snorre field expansion

July 6, 2018
Equinor has authorization from Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy to proceed with its development and operation plan for the Snorre Expansion project in the North Sea.

Offshore staff

STAVANGER, Norway – Equinor has authorization from Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy to proceed with its development and operation plan for the Snorre Expansion project in the North Sea.

The partners plan to spend just over NOK19 billion ($2.36 billion) on increasing recovery from the Snorre field by almost 200 MMbbl, and in the process extending the field’s life beyond 2040.

This will also be Norway’s largest project for improved recovery to date, Equinor added, involving a comprehensive subsea development, upgrading of the Snorre A platform, stepping up gas injection and gas import for injection.

Snorre, which came onstream in 1992, was originally expected to cease production by 2014. To date the field has produced 1.4 Bbbl: the new measures will prolong activity beyond 2040, with the recovery rate raised from 46% to 51%.

The expansion project, due to start operations in 2021, will be operated and maintained by the existing Snorre organization in Stavanger, with supplies handled by Fjordbase in Florø.

Subject to final regulatory approval, TechnipFMC will supply the subsea production system, with fabrication and installation of the pipeline bundle system awarded to Subsea 7, Snorre A modifications to Aibel, drilling and well operations to Transocean, and marine installations toDeepOcean.

Equinor’s proposal involves 24 new wells, 12 for production and 12 for injection; six new subsea templates for production and alternating water/gas injection; pipelines and umbilicals between the subsea templates and Snorre A, and upgrades to Snorre A to receive production from the subsea templates and supply water and gas for injection to the subsea templates.

07/06/2018