U.S. oil firm ConocoPhillips has received approval from the Norwegian authorities to start up its Tommeliten A field in the North Sea.
ConocoPhillips estimates that around 24 million standard cubic meters (150 million barrels) of oil equivalent can be recovered from Tommeliten A.
ConocoPhillips expects the field to come on stream this month. The plan for development and operation (PDO) was approved in 2022, and the discovery was made as early as 1977. The operator estimates investments for developing Tommeliten A at around NOK 13 billion (currently ~1,18 billion)
The field, which mainly contains gas and condensate, is located in production licence 044. It is a transboundary field, with a marginal share on the UK shelf. The licensees on the Norwegian and UK sides have unitized the activity. Tommeliten A is a gas and condensate field southwest of the Ekofisk field in the southern part of the Norwegian sector.
Tommeliten A is a subsea development with two subsea templates with enough space to accommodate a total of twelve wells. The wellstream will be routed to the Ekofisk field for further processing and export. The gas will be exported to Emden in Germany, while oil and wet gas will be routed via pipeline to Teesside in the United Kingdom.
Tommeliten A will include eleven development wells, seven of which will be completed as of start-up. The operator expects to complete the four remaining wells during the first quarter of 2024.
The twelfth well slot will be reserved as a potential future replacement well.
“The Tommeliten A development is a good example of sound utilization of existing infrastructure in the area”, says Tomas Mørch, assistant director of license management in the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.
“It’s gratifying to see that an older discovery from 1977 has now been matured into a profitable and robust field development that’s ready to come on stream. It’s also gratifying that the project has been completed ahead of schedule and within the cost framework.”
“We also note that the same type of subsea technology used on Tommeliten A could potentially be applied for other development projects in the area.”
"Several attempts to mature Tommeliten A have been made in the past. Insufficient processing capacity on Ekofisk was one of the roadblocks encountered. This is no longer an issue," the NPD said.