Lundin beefs up Johan Sverdrup capacity

Lundin Petroleum, a Swedish independent oil and gas company, said there was a potential to increase processing capacity at the Norway’s largest offshore development, the Johan Sverdrup field.

In a statement this week, the company said there was a possibility to boost processing capacity from the previously guided range of 315,000 to 380,000 bopd up to a revised 440,000 bopd. The company came to these updated figures following  a debottleneck study for Phase 1 of the project.

According to Lundin the project’s original gross production capacity for Phase 1 was estimated at being between 315,000 and 380,000 bopd.

However, Lundin said that after debottlenecking measures have concluded the design processing capacity for Phase 1 will increase by almost a third, from the predicted maximum of 380,000 bopd up to 440,000 bopd with gas processing capacity in addition.

The company added that the Johan Sverdrup development is progressing according to plan with the concept selection of Phase 2 scheduled to take place towards year end. Phase 1 first oil remains on schedule for the end of 2019.

The field is located on the Utsira Height in the North Sea offshore Norway, 155 kilometres west of Stavanger. It is being developed in phases and the first phase involves the establishment of a field centre consisting of four platforms.

Construction of two steel jackets has begun at the Kvæaerner yard on the west coast of Norway and of one jacket at the Dragados yard in Spain. Also, construction of the drilling platform and living quarters topsides is underway.

Lundin added that civil engineering works were underway on the onshore power system at Haugsneset in Norway. The pre-drilling of development wells started in March 2016 with the first development well being completed ahead of schedule.

The company said it anticipates that 35 production and injection wells will be drilled to support Phase 1 production, 17 of which will be drilled prior to first oil production with a semi-submersible rig to facilitate Phase 1 plateau production.

The operator of the project is Statoil while other partners, apart from Lundin, include Petoro, Det Norske and Denmark’s Maersk Oil. Johan Sverdrup is widely considered as being the largest oil discovery on the Norwegian shelf since the 1980s.

Offshore Eenrgy Today Staff