The Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) has authorized the oil and gas company Statoil to use North Atlantic Drilling’s (NADL) jack-up rig West Epsilon to permanently plug wells at Huldra 30/2-A, in the North Sea.
The field is located north of Oseberg in production licence 051, offshore Norway.
According to the PSA, Statoil will be plugging the wells over a course of 215 days starting in the second quarter of 2016. Water depth at the site is 125 metres.
West Epsilon is operated by North Atlantic Drilling, formerly known as Seadrill Offshore. The same rig was used by Statoil for exploration drilling back on the Huldra field in May 2008.
The rig was built by Keppel FELS in 1993 and modified four times since then. The self-elevating rig received the PSA Norway Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) on February 14, 2003.
As for the Huldra field and its platform, Statoil made the final decision to shut the platform down , and terminate production on September 3, 2014.
The Huldra field came on stream on November 21, 2001, and produced a total of 17,5 GSm³ of wet gas with a recovery rate of 80%.
Being the first Statoil-operated platform without permanent staffing, Huldra was operated from the Veslefrikk B platform located around 16 kilometres away.
According to Statoil, the field will not be fully decommissioned before 2019 and no later than 2021.
Offshore Energy Today Staff