Statoil ASA and partners submitted a development plan for Svalin field in the North Sea off Norway that envisions production start in 2013-14 to obtain reserves of 75 million bbl of oil equivalent.
Svalin is in 125 m of water on PL 169, 6 km southwest of the Grane platform. Svalin will be tied back to Grane, and the Grane gas compression facility will be modified to handle Svalin gas.
Two structures, Svalin C and Svalin M, contain similar reserves. Svalin M will be produced by a well drilled from the Grane platform, while Svalin C will be a subsea development with a 6-km flowline to the Grane platform. The hydrocarbons will utilize shared processing and export facilities.
Svalin oil will be transported, with production from Grane field, through the existing pipeline for storage and shipment from the Sture terminal.
Svalin M was discovered in 2008 and is to start up at the end of 2013. Svalin C, found in 1992, is to begin producing in mid-2014.
The Svalin development will use available process capacity and mitigate the decline of oil and gas processed on the Grane platform.
Svalin is the eighth development in Statoil’s portfolio of fast-track developments. The criteria are that a standard solution can be used and processed by the existing infrastructure. The ambition is an aggregate production of 100,000 b/d of oil equivalent by 2014.
Statoil operates Svalin with 57% interest, Petoro AS has 30%, and ExxonMobil E&P Norway has 13%.
Alan Petzet | Chief Editor Exploration
Alan Petzet is Chief Editor-Exploration of Oil & Gas Journal in Houston. He is editor of the Weekly E&D Newsletter, emailed to OGJ subscribers, and a regular contributor to the OGJ Online subscriber website.
Petzet joined OGJ in 1981 after 13 years in the Tulsa World business-oil department. He was named OGJ Exploration Editor in 1990. A native of Tulsa, he has a BA in journalism from the University of Tulsa.