Repsol lifts 100,000 barrels from Yme field in North Sea

December 23, 2021, by Nermina Kulovic

The first lifting of oil from the Repsol-operated Yme field located in the North Sea off Norway has been completed following the field start-up in October 2021.

Maersk Inspirer rig on Yme field; Source: Repsol

The Yme field is operated by Repsol with a 55 per cent interest and its partners are Lotos Exploration and Production Norge with 20 per cent working interest, OKEA with 15 per cent, and KUFPEC Norway with 10 per cent interest.

Following years of delays, the Yme field started producing in late October 2021. The Yme New Development Project consists of the engineering, procurement, construction and installation of a new wellhead module on top of existing facilities at the Yme field, the modifications and upgrading of the Maersk Inspirer mobile offshore drilling and production unit prior to installation in the field and subsequent hook-up to existing wells in and installations on the seabed offshore.

According to a statement by OKEA on Wednesday, the first lifting of oil from the Yme field was completed on 22 December.

A total volume of 100,000 barrels was lifted, of which OKEA will be allocated 15,000 barrels. Further commissioning of process systems and start-up of additional wells will continue over the next weeks which will enable ramp-up of production over the coming months as the process plant is tuned and optimised.

The expected recoverable reserves in Yme are estimated at approximately 10 million standard cubic meters of oil (approx. 63 million barrels of oil equivalent). At plateau, the field will produce around 56,000 bbl/d per day.

OKEA also lifted 632,000 barrels of oil was lifted from the Draugen field in October and expects to lift 200,000 barrels of oil from the Ivar Aasen field in December. The next lift to OKEA from Gjøa is expected to be 155,000 barrels of oil in early January.

The company’s production guiding for 2021 of 15,500-16,500 boepd remains unchanged.