Shelf Drilling jack-up rig spuds TotalEnergies’ first of two infill wells in North Sea

French energy giant TotalEnergies has kicked off drilling operations on the first of two infill wells to be drilled during 2023 in the Tor reservoir at a field located in the Danish sector of the North Sea. These activities are being undertaken with a Shelf Drilling-owned rig.

The drilling of the HBA-27B well is being carried out by Shelf Drilling’s Shelf Drilling Winner (former Noble Sam Turner) jack-up rig on behalf of the operator of the Danish Underground Consortium (DUC), which is a joint venture involving TotalEnergies (43,2  per cent), BlueNord (36,8  per cent) and Nordsøfonden (20 per cent). TotalEnergies is the operator responsible for the exploration and operation of DUC’s 13 producing fields.

According to BlueNord, the drilling activities on the HBA-27B well in the Halfdan North East area will continue over the next months. The well is scheduled to be on stream during autumn this year and is expected to have an initial peak production rate of 3 mboe/day net to BlueNord where approximately 75 per cent is gas. 

Marianne Eide, Chief Operating Officer of BlueNord, remarked: “I am very pleased to confirm that we have now spudded the first well in the Danish Underground Consortium since 2019.  This is the first of a planned seven-infill well campaign. Combined with the high level of well intervention and well stimulation activity that is already demonstrating significantly positive results, we are in a strong position to mitigate the natural decline of the reservoir and maintain today’s excellent production performance.”

Blue Nord claims that Halfdan is the largest producing field in Denmark and the Halfdan hub includes Halfdan and Halfdan North East (NE) fields. The Halfdan main field was discovered in 1998 – brought on stream in 1999 – and Halfdan NE, which is a development of the gas accumulation in the Ekofisk formation to the North East of the Halfdan field, in 2004.

The main field produces oil and gas from the Tor Chalk reservoir and has been developed in four phases, with 71 wells drilled and 35 currently active oil producers and 17 active water injectors. On the other hand, Halfdan NE has been developed in three phases, and 21 wells have been drilled, with currently 16 active gas producers.

Furthermore, Halfdan entails two main groups of platforms, Halfdan A and Halfdan B, in addition to an unmanned wellhead platform, Halfdan CA (North East). The produced oil is transported in a pipeline to Gorm while the gas is transported to Tyra West. In addition, gas can be imported (for injection) and exported to Dan.

A few months ago, BlueNord submitted a licence application for acreage containing the Elly-Luke gas discovery in the Danish part of the North Sea to participate in the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities’ mini-round of licencing. This asset is believed to have the potential to provide approximately 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Denmark and Europe.