Wintershall, and its licence partners Petoro and Spirit Energy, have started production from the Maria field one year ahead of schedule.
The original start up was planned for the fourth quarter of 2018.
The early start up has reduced costs by more than 20%, with an expected final investment cost of around NOK 12 billion, the project will stay more than NOK 3 billion below the original budget.
Maria is the first Wintershall own-operated field in Norway, which the company takes all the way from exploration, through development and to production.
“Ahead of schedule and below budget: Maria is a major achievement for Wintershall, our partners and our suppliers. The fact that we have achieved this so quickly without incidents is a real credit to the whole team that worked so hard to make this happen,” said Martin Bachmann , Wintershall executive board member for Exploration and Production in Europe and Middle East.
“The experience gained in the Maria project will serve as a blue-print, for our Nova development, previously known as Skarfjell, and worldwide.”
The subsea Maria field in the Haltenbanken area of the Norwegian Sea is connected via subsea tiebacks to the Statoil-operated Kristin, Heidrun and Åsgard B production platforms.
The Maria well-stream will go to the Kristin platform for processing while supply of water for injection into the reservoir will come from the Heidrun platform and lift gas will be provided from Åsgard B via the Tyrihans subsea template.
Processed oil will be shipped to the Åsgard field for storage and offloading to shuttle tankers and gas will be exported via the Åsgard Transport System to Kårstø.
Wintershall Norge is the operator of the license with a 50% share, Petoro has a 30% share and Spirit Energy owns the remaining 20%.