Wintershall Dea to use ‘Island Constructor’ for well intervention in Norway

Oil and gas company Wintershall Dea has received consent from the Norwegian offshore regulator to use the Island Constructor vessel for well intervention activities on the Vega and Maria fields located offshore Norway. 

The regulator, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA), said earlier this week that Wintershall Dea would use the Island Constructor vessel, starting from mid-March 2020, on production licenses 248 and 475BS/CS.

The application period extends to December 31, 2022.

The consent applies to light well intervention involving cable-based well maintenance, whereby a cable is run directly through the water down into the well without using a riser.

The well intervention activities are to be carried out by Island Constructor which received an Acknowledgement of Compliance (AoC) in September 2010. The vessel, built in 2008 and designed for well intervention, is operated by Island Offshore Management.

Maria & Vega

Maria is the first field Wintershall Dea brought all the way from discovery to production. Surrounded by gas and oil infrastructure in the Haltenbanken region of the Norwegian Sea, Maria is one of the most advanced subsea tieback fields in the world. It was discovered by the company in 2010, around 200 kilometers off the coast of Norway, and brought into production in 2017. Maria is supported by and takes services from four nearby fields.

Maria is a subsea field, producing hydrocarbons via two underwater templates at 300 metres water depth that link to four existing fields. The Maria well stream goes to the Kristin platform. Water injection comes from Heidrun, while lift gas is provided from Åsgard B via the Tyrihans subsea field. Processed oil is sent to the Åsgard field for storage and export. Gas is exported via the Åsgard Transport System to Kårstø.

The Vega field is located in the northern part of the North Sea, 28 kilometres west of the Gjøa facility and 120 kilometres northwest of Bergen. The field is developed with three underwater templates tied back to Gjøa. After taking over in 2015, Vega became Wintershall Dea’s first operated subsea field in production in Norway.

The Vega field consists of three seabed templates, Vega North, Vega Central and Vega South. Vega North and Central are gas condensate fields. The Vega South field is a gas condensate field overlain by an oil zone. It produces by pressure depletion with the underlying gas reservoir, providing natural gas lift for the shallower oil zone.

Offshore Energy Today Staff

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