Green light for drilling ops that may bring more gas to Denmark’s largest natural gas hub

TotalEnergies and its partners in the Danish Underground Consortium (DUC) have made a final investment decision (FID) to drill a well in the Harald East area, located close to the Norwegian border, enabling any discovered gas to be exported through the Tyra facilities. The Tyra II redevelopment project in the Danish North Sea is expected on stream this year.

The Danish Underground Consortium (DUC) is a partnership between TotalEnergies (operator, 43.2%), BlueNord (36.8%), and Nordsøfonden (20%). While announcing the FID for the Harald East Middle Jurassic well (HEMJ), BlueNord explained that the well would be spudded during the summer of 2024.

According to the company, the HEMJ well will be drilled in the Harald East area while gas, if the drilling activities turn out to be successful, will be exported through the Tyra East facilities. The well could deliver production by the end of 2024 and the expected gain from the well is up to 8 mmboe net to BlueNord of which about 80% is gas.  

Marianne Eide, Chief Operating Officer at BlueNord, commented: “I am delighted to announce another final investment decision in the DUC drilling sequence. The Harald East Middle Jurassic well will be drilled through the chalk reservoir and into the Jurassic reservoir which has excellent reservoir properties. We look forward to getting the results and to add to the production through the new Tyra facilities by the end of the year.”

The Dutch player elaborates that this well is set to be drilled into the Jurassic with good reservoir properties along with a wide range of subsurface outcomes concerning volume. While the cost of the well is around $28 million net to BlueNord, the company is adamant that there is an attractive unit development cost.

However, the concept for hook-up and potential life extension of Harald will be decided after the well has been drilled. Regarding the Tyra redevelopment project, a crane was put on the process module (TEG) into permanent use after the installation of the Tyra II process module in early October 2022, which broke the world record as the heaviest crane lift ever undertaken at sea.

The TEG enabled the completion of the remaining scope of the hook-up, commissioning, and start-up of the Tyra North Sea redevelopment project. This process module will be able to process 300 million standard cubic feet of gas per day at peak from Tyra and five unmanned satellite fields, including Tyra Southeast, Harald, Valdemar, Svend, and Roar.

The first gas from Tyra II is slated for the first quarter of 2024. The project is expected to reach plateau production in the second quarter of the year. Once on stream, it is expected to deliver 2.8 billion cubic meters of gas per year, which amounts to 80% of the forecasted Danish gas production.

Tyra is said to be Denmark’s largest natural gas field and has been a center for processing and exporting more than 90% of the natural gas produced in the Danish North Sea before its redevelopment, which was required due to the field’s natural subsidence of the chalk reservoir after many years of production.

The redevelopment entailed three elements, including decommissioning and recycling of the old Tyra platforms, recycling and extending the current platform legs on six of the platforms, which got new topsides, a completely new process module, and a new accommodation platform.