Equinor, partners select joint development concept for Haltenbanken East

Equinor Energy AS and partners selected a concept for developing six discoveries in a joint unitization project on Haltenbanken in the Norwegian Sea. The development concept is a subsea tie-back to Åsgard B platform, using existing facilities and infrastructure, partner Spirit Energy said in a release May 19.

Haltenbanken East will be developed as a unit between four different licenses. It comprises six discoveries and three prospects with a combined volume in the order of 100 MMboe, mostly gas.

The project will be executed in two phases. In the first phase, six wells will be drilled on five of the discoveries. The second phase includes the last discovery and three prospects, planned to be drilled as sidetracks from existing wells.

The discoveries, said Gunn Gadeholt, asset manager at Spirit Energy, “were basically considered stranded assets – it would not have been economically viable to develop any of them on their own.”

A final investment decision is expected in first-half 2022 with submission of a plan for development and operations (PDO) to Norwegian authorities in second-half 2022.

Equinor is operator in Haltenbanken East (57.7%) with partners Spirit Energy AS (11.8%), Vår Energi AS (24.6%), and Petoro AS (5.9%).