Norway approves Njord and Bauge development plans

Norwegian oil company Statoil has informed that the plans for development and operation (PDO) of Njord and Bauge in the Norwegian Sea have now been approved by the authorities.

Statoil is the operator of both Njord and Bauge fields with 20% and 35% stake, respectively.

The Njord A platform and the Njord Bravo floating storage and offloading vessel (FSO) will be upgraded to recover the remaining resources in the Njord and Hyme fields, whereas Bauge is a new field development to be tied in to the Njord A platform.

“We are pleased that the authorities have now approved the plans for Njord and Bauge, two important fields on the Norwegian continental shelf. The investments, totalling NOK 20 billion, will trigger high activities and spin-offs for the Norwegian society and Norwegian supply industry,” says Torger Rød, Statoil’s head of project development in Statoil.

The remaining resources on the Njord and Hyme field total 175 million barrels of oil equivalent. This corresponds to the reserves produced from the Njord field since first oil in in 1997. In addition, 73 million barrels of oil equivalent will be produced from Bauge.

On behalf of the partnerships in the Njord, Hyme and Bauge licenses plans for the development and operation of the Njord and Bauge fields were submitted to Norwegian authorities on March 27 this year.

The original PDO for the Njord field was submitted more than 20 years ago. The field will now produce for another twenty years, and the partnership has decided to upgrade and reuse both the Njord A platform and the Njord Bravo FSO. Therefore, in 2016, the Njord A platform and the Njord Bravo FSO were towed ashore, to Stord and Kristansund, respectively.

The Bauge field development concept includes one subsea template, two oil producers and one water inject. The discovery is located some 16 kilometres north-east of the selected tie-in platform, Njord A.

“Kværner at Stord has been awarded the contract for upgrading the platform and work facilitating the tie-in of Bauge and potential future third-party tie-ins,” says Rød.

“Njord remaining on stream until  2040 is important for our specialist communities in Kristiansund and Stjørdal, as well as the mid-Norway supply industry. An upgraded field center and new infrastructure at Njord also allows for the development of other fields in the area,” says Siri Espedal Kindem, senior vice president, Operations North, Development and Production Norway.

Next year the Njord partners will award the contract for upgrading the Njord Bravo FSO. First oil is scheduled for the end of 2020.