TotalEnergies’ massive North Sea project days away from gas production capacity at full throttle

TotalEnergies EP Danmark, a subsidiary of France’s energy giant TotalEnergies, is drawing closer to its goal of increasing output at its natural gas redevelopment project in the Danish sector of the North Sea to its full technical capacity.

The operator of the Danish Underground Consortium – encompassing TotalEnergies EP Danmark (operator, 43.2%), BlueNord (36.8%), and Nordsøfonden (20%) – has confirmed the progress made in commissioning activities related to the Tyra II facilities, highlighting that the full technical capacity could be reached between November 5 – 15, subject to remaining operational uncertainties.

Production ramp-up is expected to come after maximum technical capacity, so that, the project can reach its plateau level. While the restart of gas production from Tyra II and the export of the first gas were celebrated earlier this year, an operational occurrence temporarily impacted the commissioning of the facilities during the ramp-up and testing period.

As a result, the timeline for the commissioning and further step-up of the export and production from the project was delayed and expected to stretch into the fourth quarter of 2024. TotalEnergies also disclosed a technical issue with the low-pressure (LP) compressor transformer.

The planned repair of the second transformer progressed ahead of the timeline, thus, the transformer was ready earlier than anticipated for transportation offshore to Tyra to be lifted back onto the processing facility followed by installation.

Upon hitting the full capacity target, Tyra II is forecast to deliver 2.8 billion cubic meters of gas a year, which amounts to 80% of the forecasted Danish gas production. TotalEnergies sees the project as the central hub for Danish natural gas production in the North Sea.

The Tyra II facilities have been designed to process gas from the Tyra field, which is said to be Denmark’s largest natural gas field, and the surrounding Harald, Svend, Roar, and Valdemar satellites along with the Dan field. 

A few days ago, TotalEnergies made a new gas condensate discovery during drilling operations with the Shelf Drilling-owned jack-up rig at a well in the Harald East area, which will be exported through the Tyra facilities.

The energy giant has been busy with multiple projects, including an oil one for which it recently reached a final investment decision (FID) off the coast of Suriname, with the first oil anticipated in 2028 at the earliest. The existing market prices indicate that the development will cost over $10 billion.