Statoil and its partners on Friday submitted the Plan for Development and Operation of the Byrding oil and gas discovery, previously known as Astero, in the North Sea to government authorities.
The discovery is located about 3.8 kilometers north of Fram and 27 kilometers southwest of Gjøa. Water depth in the area is 360 meters, and the reservoir is situated about 3100 meters below the sea surface.
The discovery was made in 2005 with the drilling of well 35/11-13 and was subsequently appraised by well 35/11-14 in 2006. The estimated volume of recoverable resources from the discovery is about 1.8 million standard cubic meters of oil equivalents.
Statoil Petroleum is the operator with 45% interest and the partners are Wintershall Norge with 25%, Idemitsu Petroleum Norge 15%, and Engie E&P Norge with 15% interest.
According to Statoil, capital expenditures are estimated at approximately NOK 1 billion ($121.8 million), reduced from initially approximately NOK 3.5 billion.
“This is another example of a new discovery being realized through existing infrastructure,” says Torger Rød , Statoil’s senior vice president for project development.
The operator said that the Byrding development includes a duo-lateral well drilled from the existing Fram H-Nord subsea template through which oil and gas from Byrding will flow to Troll C.
Oil and gas will be piped from there through existing pipelines to Mongstad and Kollsnes respectively, the company said.
“Byrding shows that successful improvement efforts in Statoil, and in this case particularly within drilling and well, allow new development projects to be realized,” Rød says.
The duo-lateral well to be drilled is some seven kilometers long, the first kilometers being shared by the two laterals.
“Combined with the use of an available well slot in an existing subsea template this reduces the costs of the project substantially. The project is profitable also in the current oil price environment,” Rød says.
The company also said that the field is scheduled to come on stream in the third quarter of 2017. The project will thus yield a return in the same year as investments are made.
“Byrding will add new profitable volumes from the Troll / Fram area, boosting the activity and production on the Troll C platform,” says Gunnar Nakken , Statoil’s senior vice president for Operations West.
According to plans, Byrding will remain on stream for 8-10 years.