Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), a government agency managing the country’s oil and gas resources, has granted consent to Statoil for the start of production from the Gina Krog field in the North Sea.
Since June 2016, Statoil has received several consents regarding placing Gina Krog into service. The first one was related to accommodation quarters, cranes, pipelines, and other parts of the platform necessary for activities leading up to production start-up.
Another consent allowed putting the production plant of the Gina Krog platform into service along with the gas export pipeline between from the platform to Sleipner A, the oil export pipeline between Gina Krog platform and the Gina Krog FSO storage unit, and the gas import pipeline from Zeepipe IIA to Gina Krog.
Statoil was also given a consent to use power installations for the future reception of power from onshore.
According to a statement made by the NPD on Wednesday, the operator Statoil was cleared to start production from the field, expected to begin in late June 2017.
The Gina Krog field is located 30 kilometers northwest of the Sleipner field in the North Sea and around 250 kilometers southwest of Stavanger, Norway. The field has been developed with a production platform and an FSO, in water depths of 110-120 meters. The oil will be exported via buoy loaders, and the rich gas will be sent to the Sleipner A platform for final processing.
The recoverable reserves for Gina Krog are 16.8 million standard cubic meters of oil, 11.8 billion standard cubic meters of gas, and 3.2 million tonnes of natural gas liquids.
NPD added that investment costs were expected to reach NOK 30.9 billion ($3.7 billion), well within the range of uncertainty listed in the plan for development and operation.
Offshore Energy Today Staff