Neptune kicks off Fenja drilling campaign

Neptune Energy has kicked off its Fenja drilling campaign, located offshore Norway, following the spud of the first well.

Fenja is Neptune’s first operated development project on the Norwegian Shelf and is estimated to contain 97 million boe.

Fenja will deliver around 40 kboepd at a plateau, according to Neptune’s statement on Tuesday.

Neptune’s Director of Projects and Engineering in Norway, Erik Oppedal, said: “Sunday’s drilling start-up represents an important milestone in the project.

“The aim of these first geo-pilots is to gain a better understanding of the reservoir and to optimize the location of the production wells“.

Located in the Norwegian Sea 120 kilometres north of Kristiansund and at a water depth of 320 metres, the subsea field will be developed as a tie-back to the Njord-A platform.

At 36 kilometres, it will be the world’s longest electrically trace-heated pipe-in-pipe subsea development.

The development plan combines two subsea templates with six wells, including three oil producers, two water injectors and one gas injector.

The gas injector will be converted to a gas producer towards the end of field life.

Neptune noted that the Fenja drilling campaign has been modified to address delays resulting from the impact of COVID-19 with the licence partners opting to carry out drilling in three phases over the next two years.

This also provides greater flexibility to respond to subsurface insights gained from the geo-pilots, and the current challenging market conditions, Neptune explained.

The drilling program for 2020 includes two top holes and two geo-pilots, with an expected duration of 85 days.

The drilling program for 2020 will be carried out by the West Phoenix drilling rig, operated by Seadrill.

The West Phoenix has also recently drilled a wildcat well for Neptune near the Heidrun field in the Norwegian Sea. The well was dry.

Production start-up at Fenja is expected by 4Q 2021.

Fenja licence partners are Neptune Energy (operator and 30%), Vår Energi, (45%), Suncor (17.5%), and DNO (7.5%).