TotalEnergies spuds North Sea well with Shelf Drilling rig

France’s energy giant TotalEnergies has embarked on drilling operations at a well in the Harald East area, located close to the Norwegian border to find more gas, which could be exported through the Tyra facilities in the Danish sector of the North Sea.

The start of drilling activities comes months after the partners in the Danish Underground Consortium (DUC), including TotalEnergies (operator, 43.2%), BlueNord (36.8%), and Nordsøfonden (20%),  made a final investment decision (FID) in January 2024 to drill the Harald East Middle Jurassic well (HEMJ) during the summer.

Miriam Lykke, Chief Operating Officer of BlueNord, commented: “We will drill through the chalk reservoir and then into the Jurassic reservoir which has very promising qualities. If successful, the expected gains from HEMJ could be significant to BlueNord, and we look forward to seeing the results later this year.”

The well was spudded by the Shelf Drilling Winner jack-up rig in the Harald East area, close to the Norwegian border. If these exploration operations bring more hydrocarbons, the gas will be exported through the Tyra East facilities and the well could be put into production by the end of 2024, with expected gain estimated to be up to 8 mmboe net to BlueNord of which approximately 80% is anticipated to be gas.

With a maximum drilling depth of 35,000 feet and a water depth of 400 ft, the 2014-built Shelf Drilling Winner rig is of Friede & Goldman JU-3000N design and can accommodate 150 people. The jack-up has been working for TotalEnergies in Denmark since October 2022 and is slated to end this assignment in March 2025.

Following the restart of gas production from Tyra II, which is said to be Denmark’s largest natural gas field, the export of gas from the Tyra facilities to Denmark was ongoing during the ramp-up period, when the operator disclosed that an operational occurrence was temporarily impacting the commissioning of the facilities during the ramp-up and testing period.

Based on the French player’s update in May 2024, the commissioning and further ramp-up of the export and production from the new Tyra II facilities will likely continue into the fourth quarter of 2024. ​The operator aims to partially resume production from Tyra II during the summer of 2024. ​

The redeveloped Tyra hub, which extends the Danish field’s life by 25 years, is anticipated to produce 5.7 million cubic meters of gas and 22,000 barrels of condensate per day at a plateau.