Maersk Oil is to shut in its Tyra field offshore Denmark in a move that could impact a string of other fields on the Danish Continental Shelf.
Maersk Oil says it was unable to find an economic strategy for full recovery of the remaining resources in the field, Denmark's largest gas field and the centre of a major hub 225km west of Esbjerg, and will need to shut it down in October 2018. The field's facilities, which have been deemed unsafe to continue operate, could be rebuilt, however, depending on an economically attractive solution being found.
The field's facilities, which started production in 1984, are the processing and export centre for all gas produced by the Danish Underground Consortium (DUC): more than 90% of Denmark’s gas production is processed through the facilities. Tyra East and Tyra West is also the hub for a number of smaller facilities in the Tyra field. This includes the neighboring unmanned facility, Tyra Southeast, which was extended in 2015.
More than US$140 million (DKK1 billion) gas been spent reinforcing the Tyra structures over the past 15 years, but, despite, this, new information on storm and wave impact, combined with subsidence of the chalk reservoir it sits on, reducing the gap between the structure and the sea, means the facilities are unsafe to continue operating, says Maersk.
“Tyra has since 1984 been the main hub for gas production and processing in the Danish North Sea. The Tyra facilities are approaching the end of their operational life, and together with our partners in DUC we have assessed solutions for safe decommissioning and possible rebuilding of the Tyra facilities,” says Martin Rune Pedersen, COO, Maersk Oil.
"In January 2017, we will have to reallocate resources from Tyra rebuild planning to engineering work for a detailed plan to discontinue the Tyra field as the Danish hub for gas processing,” he added.
Maersk Oil says a dialogue with Danish authorities will be continued in an effort to identify the terms that will allow future investments, including investments in rebuilding Tyra, to secure long-term activities and jobs in the Danish North Sea.
The Tyra field is operated by Maersk Oil on behalf of the DUC, a partnership between A.P. Moller – Maersk (31.2%), Shell (36.8%), Nordsøfonden (20%) and Chevron (12.0%).
Image: Tyra East. Photo from Maersk Oil.
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