Qatar Petroleum has kicked off the development drilling campaign for the offshore North Field East project, or NFE previously known as the North Field Expansion Project.
The first of 80 North Field East development wells was spudded on March 29, by the jack-up rig “GulfDrill Lovanda”, which is managed and operated by GulfDrill, a joint venture between the Qatar based drilling contractor Gulf Drilling International, and Oslo-listed drilling firm Seadrill.
This phase of the North Field expansion project will increase the Qatar’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) production capacity from 77 million tons per annum (Mtpa) to 110 Mtpa.
The second phase of the North Field LNG Expansion Project called the North Field South Project (NFS), will further increase Qatar’s LNG production capacity from 110 Mtpa to 126 Mtpa, the state-owned company said Wednesday.
Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, said: “The start of the development drilling campaign for NFE represents an important milestone to deliver on our strategy to grow our LNG production capacity. The continued achievement of milestones, the dedication of significant resources and the making of substantial investments is proof that the NFE remains on top of our priorities and demonstrates our commitment to executing this mega-project.”
Qatar Petroleum had earlier awarded a number of contracts for jack-up drilling rigs to be utilized for the drilling of 80 development wells for the NFE.