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Wintershall confirms start of Maria field drilling

March 23, 2017

German oil firm Wintershall has started drilling operations on the Maria field, offshore Norway.

According to Wintershall’s social media channels, the Deepsea Stavanger drilling rig has started drilling on the field in the Norwegian Sea and will drill a total of six wells with the beginning of production aimed for 2018.

The field, located some 200 kilometers from Kristiansund, Norway, is operated by Wintershall with a 50 percent interest. A plan for development and operation of the Maria field was submitted in May 2015. Wintershall’s partners in the field are Petoro, with 30 percent interest, and Centrica Resources, with the remaining 20 percent. The development plan was approved in September 2015.

The field solution for Wintershall’s flagship development in Norway involves connecting the two seabed installations to three existing platforms in the Norwegian Sea, the Kristin, Heidrun and Åsgard B production platforms.

The investment for the field located on Halten Terrace in blocks 6407/1 and 6406/3 is estimated at around 15.3 billion NOK, including development drilling.

Recoverable reserves on the field are estimated around 180 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), of which the majority is oil. The planned production startup for Maria is 2018, and the estimated production period is 23 years.

Odfjell Drilling, the owner of Deepsea Stavanger, also confirmed on Thursday the start of drilling operations on the Maria field.

The company said that Deepsea Stavanger left CCB on March 1, 2017, according to plan and has carried out “inshore testing” prior to start sailing to location on Wednesday, March 15.

Some final DP tests were performed during Sunday, March 19 and the rig was accepted by Wintershall for startup of operations late Sunday evening making it ready to start its contract on March 20.

Offshore Energy Today Staff