2023-09-15 18:45:35
Equinor ASA and Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co. plan to develop a new natural gas field in the North Sea and extend the life of the Gina Krog field, with the aim of maintaining Norway’s position as Europe’s largest gas supplier .
Equinor and Kufpec aim to start producing at the Eirin natural gas field from the second half of 2025, releasing around 27.6 million barrels of oil equivalent in recoverable reserves, the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy said in a statement. announced on Friday. The project is estimated to cost around 4 billion crowns ($370 million).
The development plan, the first to be presented this year, follows a wave of applications in late 2022 that benefited from a pandemic-era tax package to help avoid a slowdown in Norway’s most important industry. The new Eirin field, which will be connected to the Gina Krog platform, is another example of oil companies in Norway focusing on assets close to existing infrastructure.
“This is an important final-phase project that allows us to use the resources available on the Norwegian continental shelf in a good way,” said Petroleum and Energy Minister Terje Aasland on Friday. The energy situation in Europe is “more stable and secure” than last year, he said, “but this is also because we continue to provide predictable supplies to the market.”
Gina Krog’s production helped increase the volume of natural gas Norway was able to export to continental Europe following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Previously, it had been injected back into the well to increase oil recovery. Rising demand for the country’s gas has also increased risks for rural life extension projects such as Eirin.
“It is becoming even more important to offset declines in existing fields, which is why we focus so much on exploring nearby fields,” said Camilla Salthe, Equinor’s senior vice president for field life extension, on Friday. , adding that there will be other discoveries in the area going forward.
The Gina Krog platform will have extra capacity from 2025, with natural gas to be sent from there to Sleipner A for further processing, the ministry said. The new field will extend production at Gina Krog by seven years, until 2036.
Equinor controls 78.2% of the project, with Kuwait’s Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co. owning the remaining 21.8%.
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