Equinor Energy AS has submitted a plan for development and operation (PDO) to the Norwegian Minister for Petroleum and Energy for Irpa gas discovery in Vøring basin, 340 km west of Bodø in the Norwegian Sea in 1,350 m of water.
The discovery will be developed with three wells and an 80-km tie-back pipeline to the Aasta Hansteen platform. It is the only planned deepwater development in Norway.
The gas will be phased into existing infrastructure over Aasta Hansteen and transported to the Nyhamna gas processing plant via Polarled. From there, gas will be transported via the Langeled pipeline system to customers in the UK and continental Europe.
The development will have a total cost of NOK 14.8 billion in 2022. The field is scheduled to come on stream fourth-quarter 2026. There will be joint production from Irpa and Aasta Hansteen through 2031 and then Irpa will continue to produce until 2039.
Irpa, formerly known as Asterix, was proven in 2009. Expected recoverable resources are estimated at about 20 billion std cu m of gas and 0.4 std cu m of condensate, or 124 MMboe.
Equinor Energy AS is operator at Irpa (51%) with partners Wintershall DEA (19%), Petoro AS (20%), and Shell PLC (10%).
Alex Procyk | Upstream Editor
Alex Procyk is Upstream Editor at Oil & Gas Journal. He has also served as a principal technical professional at Halliburton and as a completion engineer at ConocoPhillips. He holds a BS in chemistry (1987) from Kent State University and a PhD in chemistry (1992) from Carnegie Mellon University. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).
