Repsol presents revised plan for Yme development

Spanish oil company Repsol has submitted a revised plan for development and operation (PDO) of the Yme field off Norway to the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.

The revised PDO is based on re-use of existing facilities that were installed on the field during the development in 2007 to the extent possible, a new wellhead module on top of the existing caisson and the lease of a mobile offshore drilling and production unit, Repsol said in a statement on Tuesday.

The company added that the existing storage tank, caisson, pipelines, subsea templates and offloading system will be reused. In addition, all existing wells will be used and further wells will be drilled.

Repsol is acting as operator of and on behalf of the partners in the Production Licence 316/316B on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The developing consortium is made up of Repsol (55%), Lotos Exploration and Production Norge (20%), OKEA (15%), KUFPEC Norway (10%)

Overall, the total investment in the Yme New Development project is estimated at approximately NOK 8 billion ($956.1M), and Norwegian suppliers will account for 70% of the total.

Total Norwegian employment in the development phase is estimated to just below 12,000 man-years. Annual national employment in the operational phase is estimated to about 1,000 man-years.

The recoverable oil reserves for the Yme field are estimated at approximately 65 million barrels at 10 year’s total production. First oil from Yme is planned for the first half of 2020.

Earlier in December, Maersk Drilling hired Aker Solutions to modify the production module on the Maersk Inspirer jack-up rig for the Yme oilfield. The work scope covers engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning services.

The North Sea Yme field was a producing field from 1996 to 2001, after which the field was shut down and the facilities removed. It was no longer profitable to operate the field. Talisman then tried to bring it back online using an SBM-supplied production platform, however this plan was abandoned due to structural integrity issues with the platform, which was then decommissioned without having produced a single barrel of oil.

Talisman was then acquired by Repsol which is now redeveloping the Yme field using the Maersk Inspirer jack-up unit.

Also in December, Repsol hired Atkins to provide structural front end engineering design (FEED) for the remediation of the Yme asset in the North Sea.