Gina Krog Oil and Gas Field Starts Production in North Sea

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Norway's oil and gas authority has announced that production has started at the Gina Krog field in the North Sea.

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate said that Gina Krog, located 30 kilometres (km) northwest of Sleipner and 230 kilometres southwest of Stavanger, has 20 well slots and recoverable reserves totalling 16.8 million standard cubic metres (Sm3) of oil, 11.8 billion Sm3 of gas and 3.2 million tonnes of natural gas liquids (NGL). Statoil is the operator with a stake of 58.7%, alongside partners Total E&P Norge AS (15%), KUFPEC Norway AS (15%), PGNiG Upstream Norway AS (8%) and Aker BP ASA (3.3%). They have spent 31 billion Norwegian kroner ($3.7 billion) on the field.

"Gina Krog is an important contribution towards maintaining a high level of profitable production from the shelf," said Tove Francke, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate's assistant director for the southern North Sea.

She added: "This means that three out of four fields on the Utsira High are producing. Edvard Grieg started in November 2015, while Ivar Aasen followed in December of last year. Johan Sverdrup is expected to start producing in late 2019. Gina Krog has been prepared for phasing in current and future discoveries in the area, and will be tied into a planned joint solution to supply the Utsira High with power from shore. This will be in place in 2022."

The field was initially a small-size gas discovery made in 1974, but in 2007 and 2008, oil was struck, which Statoil maintained "shows the importance of near-field exploration." The Gina Krog platform is tied into Sleipner A platform and uses both processing capacity on the platform and existing pipelines for sending the gas to the market in Europe. Oil is transported by a floating storage and offloading (FSO) unit, which will be located on the field.

"This illustrates how we can maximise value creation and realise new projects on the NCS by utilising existing infrastructure," explained Margareth Øvrum, Statoil's executive vice president for Technology, Projects and Drilling. "We are proud to have delivered Gina Krog with a good HSE record and in line with the cost estimate in the plan for development and operation."

Industrial Info is tracking all of the related Gina Krog projects, including the $220 million conversion of the FSO, which is expected to finish later this year. The conversion work includes installation of a new helideck, hull reinforcements, refurbishment of submersible turret loading (STL) compartment, installation of offshore crane, loading hose reel package, azimuth thruster and replacement of two generators, as well as associated piping and additional cabling works.

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