Aker BP gains consent to move Ivar Aasen control room onshore

Norwegian E&P player Aker BP has received consent from the offshore safety body, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), to use an onshore control room for the Ivar Aasen field in the North Sea.

The PSA said on Wednesday that Aker BP received consent to move the control room functions for the Ivar Aasen field onshore.

According to the safety body, the relocation complies with the plan for development and operation (PDO), which was approved in 2013. This states that the field should be capable of being controlled from a central control room on land.

To date, the field has been controlled from the control room on the offshore platform, but the plan is for the onshore control room to take over during the fourth quarter of 2018.

The PSA also conducted an audit of the control room solution back in August and announced the results of the probe in October.

Ivar Aasen

Discovered in 2008, the Ivar Aasen field is located in the northern part of the North Sea, about 175 km west of Karmøy. The water depth is about 110 meters. It contains around 186 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe).

The field started oil production on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2016, four years after the PDO was submitted to Norwegian authorities.

It was developed as a stand-alone platform for partial processing and water conditioning and injection, with the transfer of the multiphase hydrocarbon mixture through two pipelines to the neighboring Edvard Grieg field for final processing and export.

The economic life of the Ivar Aasen field could be 20 years, depending on oil prices and production development.

The partners in the field are Aker BP with a 34.7862% interest, Equinor with a 41.4730%, Bayerngas Norway with a 12.3173%, Wintershall Norway with a 6.4651%, VNG Norge with a 3.0230%, Lundin Norway with a 1.3850%, and Okea with a 0.5540% interest.