Circular FPSO in Norway and reuse in UK as Equinor moves ahead with new projects

Norwegian energy major Equinor has made progress with two of its offshore project developments, with the company already having a concept in mind for one and exploring options to reuse an existing FPSO for the other.

While one of these projects is located at Equinor’s home ground in Norway, the other one is located in the UK where Equinor already has one field in production. Namely, the Mariner field, located in the UK North Sea, started production in August 2019.

Following reports that Equinor has selected the concept for its Wisting field development in Norway’s Barents Sea, Offshore Energy has reached out to the Norwegian energy major seeking confirmation and more details about its plans.

Equinor confirmed to Offshore Energy that the concept the company is maturing for the Wisting field towards DG2 is a circular FPSO. A spokesperson for Equinor also said the company expects to award FEED contracts for the project after DG2, at the end of 2021.

The Wisting project is located in the Hoop area of the Barents Sea, around 310 kilometres from the Norwegian mainland. The discovery was made in 2013 and volumes are estimated at 440 million barrels of oil equivalent. Equinor has an interest in another Barents Sea field, the Vår Energi-operated Goliat, which has also been developed with a circular FPSO.

Equinor has been the operator of Wisting since December 2019 following the approval of authorities for a transfer of operatorship from OMV to Equinor. The Norwegian company is holding the operatorship in the development stage of the project, while Austria’s OMV will resume operatorship in the production phase.

Following the takeover and moving on with the Wisting project development, Equinor in November 2020 awarded contracts for concept studies to further progress the project development towards a final concept select decision.

Suppliers who were awarded contracts in connection with the start of Wisting concept studies included Aker Solutions, KBR, Sevan SSP, and Aibel for the FPSO part and Aker Solutions, TechnipFMC, OneSubsea Processing, IKM Ocean Design, and Kongsberg Maritime for the SURF part.

This is when Equinor and its partners decided to further assess a floating production unit based on a circular FPSO solution. However, at the time, the company said a lot of work remained before it could make its final concept select decision, which was scheduled for the second quarter of 2021 and now confirmed to Offshore Energy by Equinor.

As part of its plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its operations and in line with its target of reaching net-zero by 2050, Equinor is also considering a power-from-shore solution for the circular FPSO while the export of gas is planned to Snøhvit.

Electrification of oil and gas assets is considered to be one of the main solutions for decarbonising existing and future oil and gas production with electricity provided either from an onshore power cable or offshore wind turbines.

Equinor already has some of its assets electrified and plans to electrify others are in development as well. The Norwegian company this week also said it would speed up its energy transition efforts by producing less oil and gas in the longer term and investing about $23 billion in renewables in the next five-year period.

New projects coming on stream by 2030 have an average break-even below 35 $/bbl and a short payback time of less than 2.5 years.

Equinor is also looking into using the Altera Infrastructure-owned FPSO Petrojarl Knarr for its Rosebank project development, located off the Shetland Islands, and considering the power-from-shore option. Rosebank is one of the largest undeveloped fields on the UKCS.

Offshore Energy has reached out to Equinor and Altera Infrastructure, enquiring about the studies of using the Petrojarl Knarr FPSO.

Altera Infrastructure told us it is fully engaged in a concept study with Equinor for the possible redeployment of an FPSO to the Rosebank field, with Petrojarl Knarr FPSO being a strong candidate for redeployment in harsh waters.

A spokesperson for Altera also added: “Petrojarl Knarr is a relatively new and modern asset, and it was constructed to allow for electrification to be provided from shore, which would reduce operational CO2 emissions. We continue to be actively engaged in discussions and study work for a range of different redeployment options for the Knarr FPSO”.

The Rosebank field was discovered in 2004 and lies about 130 km northwest of the Shetland Islands in water depths of approximately 1,110m. The potentially recoverable volumes at Rosebank were expected to be more than 300 million barrels.

After signing the deal in late 2018, Equinor entered the Rosebank project in early 2019 by buying Chevron’s 40 per cent operated interest. The company then took to assessing the previous concept for the field in light of its other project concepts such as Johan Castberg, which is being developed with an FPSO.

After being granted a three-year extension for the Rosebank licenses by the UK Oil and Gas Authority (OGA), Equinor in June 2019 decided that a final investment decision for Rosebank would be taken by May 2022.

When it comes to the FPSO, the Petrojarl Knarr has been operating on the Shell-operated Knarr field since March 2015. Shell extended the contract back in April 2020 until at least March 2022. The contract amendment also included a reduction in day rate and termination of the operator’s purchase option for the vessel.

The Knarr field, located 120 kilometres off Norway, has estimated gross recoverable reserves of around 80 million barrels of oil equivalent with a production life of at least ten years.