North Sea field secures life extension

HitecVision-backed energy player Sval Energi has received consent from Norway’s offshore safety regulator to use the facilities on a field in the North Sea off Norway beyond their original lifespan.

The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) announced the life extension for the facilities on the Vale field on Monday. This follows the consent to extend the use of these facilities to 11 June 2023, which the PSA gave to the previous operator, Spirit Energy, in May 2021.

After Sval Energi completed the acquisition of Spirit Energy Norway, the Norwegian player became the new operator of the Vale field and applied for a short extension, which the PSA has now granted. This consent is valid until 1 October 2023.

Located in the North Sea, 16 kilometres north of the Heimdal field, in a water depth of 115 metres, the Vale field was discovered in 1991, and the plan for development and operation (PDO) was approved in 2001. The field – developed with a subsea template including one horizontal production well with a single side track, tied back to the Heimdal platform via a 16-kilometre-long pipeline – started production in 2002.

The Vale field had been expected to cease production in 2021/22, however, new technology and operating methods and measures to improve oil and gas recovery mean that licensees often want to keep existing facilities working past their retirement date, according to the PSA.

While the well stream from Vale is routed to Heimdal for processing and export, gas is transported via Vesterled to St Fergus in the UK and condensate is transported by pipeline to the Brae field in the UK sector and further to Cruden Bay.

Sval Energi is the operator of the Vale field with a 50 per cent interest and its partners are Lotos E&P with 25.757 per cent interest and PGNiG Upstream Norway with the remaining 24.243 per cent interest.

Sval Energi has been actively working on building its portfolio by combining oil and gas resources with decarbonisation value chains. One of its recent acquisitions includes deals with Equinor and Suncor.

These transactions add around 34,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day to the Norwegian player’s production.