Equinor Pushes Ahead with Asgard Oil Field Project

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Norwegian oil and gas major Equinor and its partners have announced plans to invest $165 million to develop the Asgard oil field in the Norwegian Sea and implement the Åsgard B low-pressure project.

Asgard has been producing since 1999, and the entire field development ranks among the largest developments on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), embracing nearly 70 wells distributed among 23 subsea templates. The Asgard A floating production platform and semi-submersible Asgard B floating platform currently receive oil and gas from seven different fields: Midgard, Smørbukk, Smørbukk South, Mikkel, Morvin, Smørbukk Northeast and Trestakk. Asgard B features processing systems for gas treatment and stabilisation of oil and condensate. The partners claimed that transition to low-pressure production is important to secure improved recovery from the field.

"We're pleased that the Åsgard owners have given their go-ahead for the low-pressure project," explained Geir Tungesvik, Equinor's senior vice president for projects. "The project will increase production from the current Smørbukk wells and contribute to achieve planned production from the field. We're also awarding a contract to Aker Solutions which will provide valuable activity and help maintain jobs in a difficult time."

Randi Hugdahl, vice president for Åsgard operations, added: "We can still produce 400-500 million barrels of oil equivalent from the field. This means value creation in the order of NOK 150 - 200 billion ($17.7-$23.6 billion). The current recovery rate for the field is almost 50%, but our ambition is to extract 60% of the hydrocarbons in the reservoirs before the field will have to be shut down".

The selected concept is a modification of the platform to reduce inlet pressure by replacing the reinjection compressors and rebuilding parts of the processing facility. A FEED (front-end engineering and design) contract was awarded to Aker Solutions in December 2019 for modification work on Åsgard B in connection with the low-pressure project. The contract has now been expanded into an EPCI (engineering, procurement, construction, and installation) contract. Valued at more than $94 million, work will start immediately and is planned to continue through 2024.

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