Equinor now officially opening challenging Martin Linge field

Norwegian oil and gas giant Equinor is now officially opening its operated Martin Linge oil and gas field, located in the North Sea, following the production start-up last year.

As informed by Equinor, Norway’s Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Marte Mjøs Persen, will today officially open the Martin Linge field. The operator expects the investments in the field to be recovered in full this year due to good operational performance and production efficiency since it came on stream in June last year.

Equinor president and CEO, Anders Opedal, stated: “Martin Linge has been a very challenging project to put on stream. Thanks to competent colleagues, good suppliers, and good collaboration with our partner Petoro and the authorities, the field was efficiently and safely put on stream last year. The field is now producing very efficiently. With current prices, investments in the field will be recovered in full during 2022.”

Equinor took over the operatorship of the field from TotalEnergies in 2018 and it holds 70 per cent interest while its partner Petoro holds the remaining 30 per cent. During the development phase, the project encountered significant challenges and the capital expenditures doubled. Namely, the field capex totalled NOK 63 billion (about $7.1 bln), compared with NOK 31.5 billion (about $3.5 bln) in the plan for development and operation (PDO) from 2012.

The expected recoverable resources are about 260 million barrels of oil equivalent. Once it reaches plateau production, which is expected this year, the field will produce around  115,000 barrels of oil equivalent, mainly gas and condensate.

Martin Linge is the first platform to be put on stream by Equinor from an onshore control room. The wells and the process are operated from the control room in Stavanger. The offshore operators use tablets in the field to collaborate with the onshore control room and the operations teams onshore. Due to power from the shore, the emissions from the field are low (about 1 kg of CO2 per barrel).