Equinor cleared to use facilities linking Dvalin to Heidrun field

Norwegian oil company Equinor has received consent from the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) for the use of facilities to link the Dvalin field to the Heidrun field, both located offshore Norway.

The PSA said on Monday that the development solution for Dvalin would connect the well stream to the Equinor-operated Heidrun tension leg platform (TLP) for processing. The start-up of the facilities is expected in the second quarter of 2020.

According to the offshore safety regulator, the condensate will go to Heidrun B and the gas will be sent via the Polarled pipeline to Nyhamna.

Dvalin is being developed as a subsea field tied back to Heidrun, which lies some 15 kilometers to the northwest. Wintershall Dea is the operator of the field with a 55 percent interest, and its partners are Petoro and Edison with a 35 and 10 percent interest, respectively.

It is located in the central part of the Norwegian Sea and consists of two separate structures, Dvalin East and Dvalin West.

Dvalin East was proven in 2010 in a water depth of 344 meters. Dvalin West was proven in 2012 and is located 3.5 kilometers west of Dvalin East. The water depth is 400 meters.

The plan for development and production (PDO) was approved in March 2017. The development concept is a subsea template with four gas producers tied-back to the Heidrun platform. Production is planned to start in late 2020.

The Heidrun oil and gas field is located 190km offshore in the Haltenbanken region of the Norwegian Sea in water depths of around 350 meters.

The field was discovered in 1985 and was brought on stream in October 1995. The recoverable reserves at the field were originally estimated at 182.1 million cubic meters of oil, 46.5 billion cubic meters of gas, and 2.2 million tonnes of natural gas liquids (NGL).

The remaining recoverable reserves from the field by the end of 2012 were estimated at 40.1 million cubic meters of oil, 31.3 billion cubic meters of gas and 1.7 million tonnes of NGL.

It is worth reminding that Wintershall Dea started drilling four production wells on the Dvalin gas field back in August 2019. Drilling of the wells from the Transocean Arctic rig is expected to last approximately one year.

In the same month, a 3,500-tonne processing module was completed and lifted on the Heidrun platform in preparation for receiving gas from the Dvalin field. The first Dvalin module for the Heidrun platform was delivered in the spring of 2018.