First Oil Flows from Statoil’s Hyme Field

On 25 February Statoil and its partners began production from the Hyme oil field in the southern part of the Norwegian Sea. Hyme is the second of Statoil’s 12 fast-track projects.

“The field came on stream one month earlier than we assumed in the Plan for Development and Operation (PDO). The project execution period, from we decided to use Njord A as a tie-in platform, and to first oil, is thus slightly more than two years, which we are very pleased with,” says Halfdan Knudsen, head of the “Fast-track” portfolio in Development and Production Norway (DPN).

The “Fast-track” projects consist of discoveries made close to existing fields. In the longer term the aim is to bring these projects from discovery to first oil within 30 months.

On schedule

“We have now gained useful experience which helps us accelerate forthcoming development projects, and execution in 30 months will thus be feasible for most of the prospects to be drilled in 2013. We are now on sechedule and within budget for Hyme and the other projects. Good portfolio management and good cooperation across the business areas are critical success factors,” Knudsen says.

The Hyme field was discovered at Haltenbanken in June 2009, 19 kilometres north-east of the Njord A platform. It is tied in to existing infrastructure on Njord A. Hyme extends the production life of the Njord field from 2015 to 2020. The field development plan includes a production well and a water injection well drilled through a subsea template with four well slots. The installation of five new risers and Njord A modifications to receive Hyme production are also part of the project. The investments total some NOK 4.5 billion.

“This development will revitalise the entire area,open for further expansion and increase the production life of Njord,” Knudsen says.

Increased volumes

Due to the high reservoir complexity an unconventional well solution has been chosen for Hyme. It involves the use of a multilateral well for optimal drainage of the reservoir.

“The chosen optimised drainage solution increases the estimated recoverable volumes from Hyme by about 17 percent compared with the assumption at the basis for the PDO. According to recent estimates Hyme contains some 30 million barrels of recoverable reserves. The field’s life expected to last beyond 2020 further volume increases may be expected at Njord. We have successfully delivered another good-quality fast-track project before schedule and below budget. Good cooperation with our partners and suppliers has been essential to this successful execution,” says Kjetel Digre, head of the fast-track and subsea project portfolio in Technology, Projects and Drilling (TPD).

“Hyme has added good synergies in relation to the upgrading of the Njord A platform and the Njord low-pressure production project performed in 2012. The extensive Njord activities have been performed in parallel with the Hyme reconstruction. This was possible thanks to the use of a flotel moored up at Njord in the autumn of 2012, which helped ensure the necessary capacity for the performance of all work,” Knudsen says.

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Press Release, February 25, 2013