Aker BP pursuing more oil in North Sea Yggdrasil area
Aker BP says drilling has started on the Natrudstilen prospect in the Norwegian North Sea.
The company is aiming to prove up further reserves for potential inclusion in its ongoing Yggdrasil multi-field development. This follows the recent Omega Alfa oil discovery, which contains an estimated 96 MMboe to 134 MMboe recoverable.
East Frigg Beta/Epsilon, discovered in May 2023, has now been integrated into the Yggdrasil development and will be tied back to Hugin A via a subsea template that has already been installed on the seabed.
In its third-quarter results/operations update, the company added that two rigs were now drilling development wells on the Hugin and Munin licenses.
Among other recent achievements, the Hugin A and Munin jackets have both been set down at their respective offshore locations. Aker BP’s Subsea Alliance has installed the final five subsea templates, additional pipelines and the 7.7-km south bundle in the Munin license.
At Aker Solutions’ Stord yard, the Hugin A topside is progressing, with the well bay module delivered recently from Dubai. A utility module has been loaded out from Egersund, ready for transport to Stord.
Assembly of the Hugin B topside and jacket has started in Verdal, outfitting of the Munin topside is advancing in Haugesund, and commissioning activities have started for Yggdrasil’s power-from-shore facilities.
In the southern Norwegian North Sea, offshore hookup preparations have begun for the bridge for Aker BP’s Valhall PWP-Fenris developments, and work on the spool metrology and umbilical preparations has finished.
Production from Hanz in the Utsira High region (a tieback to the Ivar Aasen platform) remains shut in to allow for placement of the final covers over the new Symra/Hanz pipelines. Planning continues for an IOR campaign next year at Ivar Aasen, with the rig set to arrive next summer.
Nearby, drilling activities continue at the Equinor-operated Johan Sverdrup field center, with the rig preparing to drill two retrofit multilateral wells that will add branches to an existing producer.
Finally, various subsea facilities and pipeline installation campaigns have finished for Aker BP’s Skarv Satellites Project in the Norwegian Sea. This involves tiebacks of the Alve Nord, Idun Nord and Ørn discoveries to the Skarv FPSO.
The first two wells have been drilled at Idun Nord. Various additional tieback projects are under consideration, including the E-Prospect, Lunde, Storjo/Kaneljo and Adriana/Sabina discoveries.
In other news, Tampnet recently deployed what it claims is the world’s first fully autonomous private 5G and edge compute solution on Aker BP’s Edvard Grieg platform in the Norwegian North Sea. The Private Mobile Edge Compute (PMEC)/5G infrastructure is installed on that offshore production platform, and the company has ordered further installations for its Yggdrasil, Fenris, Valhall, Alvheim, Ivar Aasen and Skarv field developments.
About the Author
Jeremy Beckman
Editor, Europe
Jeremy Beckman has been Editor Europe, Offshore since 1992. Prior to joining Offshore he was a freelance journalist for eight years, working for a variety of electronics, computing and scientific journals in the UK. He regularly writes news columns on trends and events both in the NW Europe offshore region and globally. He also writes features on developments and technology in exploration and production.