Production drilling started on Johan Sverdrup development

Production drilling has commenced on the first of a total of 35 wells to be drilled during Phase 1 of the Johan Sverdrup field development offshore Norway in the North Sea, operator Statoil ASA reported.

The well is being drilled using Odfjell Drilling’s Deepsea Atlantic semisubmersible drilling rig. The rig is drilling the first production well through a predrilling template that was installed on the field in summer 2015. A total of eight wells will be drilled through the predrilling template before the rig is relocating to drill injection wells on three locations in the field.

In 2018, the permanent Johan Sverdrup drilling platform will be installed as the second of four platforms. The drilling platform is currently being constructed at Aibel’s yard in Haugesund, north of Stavanger, and in Thailand.

When the drilling platform is installed and operational, the eight predrilled wells will be hooked up from the predrilling template. At this point, Deepsea Atlantic will drill the injection wells providing reservoir pressure support to maintain high field production.

A 1.5 billion-kroner contract for integrated drilling services was let to Baker Hughes Inc. in July 2015. The contract for rig and drilling services on Johan Sverdrup, totaling more than 4.35 billion kroner, was let to Odfjell Drilling in June 2015. Contracts worth more than 50 billion kroner have been let by the Johan Sverdrup project.

Johan Sverdrup has estimated resources of 1.7-3 billion boe. Peak production will be equivalent to 25% of all Norwegian petroleum production, Statoil said. First-phase production is expected to reach 315,000-380,000 b/d of oil with peak production pegged at 550,000-650,000 b/d.

Partners in the project inclue Statoil 40.0267%, Lundin Norway 22.6%, Petoro 17.36%, Det norske oljeselskap 11.5733%, and Maersk Oil 8.44%.