BG Group: First oil from Knarr (Norway)

BG Group has today announced that the Petrojarl Knarr floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel had started production from the Knarr oil field in the North Sea, offshore Norway.  

The FPSO has been leased from Teekay Corporation and is moored approximately 120 kilometres off the Norwegian coast. It has a production capacity of 63 000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and a storage capacity of 800 000 barrels.

The Knarr field, discovered in 2008, has estimated gross recoverable reserves of around 80 million barrels of oil equivalent with a production life of at least ten years. In 2011 the Knarr field was merged with the Knarr West field into an integrated development. New exploration drilling in the licence area is ongoing, in order to help extend the production life further.

BG Group is the operator of the field with a 45% working interest. Partners include Idemitsu Petroleum Norge (25%), Wintershall Norge (20%) and DEA Norge AS (10%).

“The Norwegian Continental Shelf is of high strategic importance for DEA and we are very delighted that we achieved first production from Knarr,” says Dirk Warzecha, Chief Operating Officer of DEA. “Combined with our other interests in producing assets in Norway, like Snorre, Snøhvit and Gjøa, Knarr will provide an important contribution to reach our growth targets,” Warzecha added.

“This is an important project that we are very pleased to see go on stream. The production from Knarr will soon amount to more than 20% of DEA Norge’s total oil production,” says Hugo Sandal, Managing Director of DEA Norge.

“We are pleased to see project delivery with a much better track record than many other recent North Sea projects,” says Sandal.

“It is the first time that DEA Norge participates in a FPSO operation and we will gain a lot of experiences in this field development technology,” Sandal explained.

DEA Norge’s share of the reserves amounts to 8 million barrels of oil equivalents. The oil will be loaded to oil tankers from the FPSO, and the gas will be exported in a new pipeline connected to the FLAGS pipeline, and then on to SEGAL in St Fergus in the United Kingdom.

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