The Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor said Friday it had brought online the Breidablikk field in the North Sea, four months ahead of schedule and within budget, and with higher initial production than expected.
Tied back to the Grane platform, the subsea field holds almost 200 million barrels of recoverable oil. The partners are Equinor (operator), Petoro, Vår Energi, and ConocoPhillips.
When the plan for development and operation (PDO) was submitted in September 2020, production from Breidablikk was scheduled to start in the first half of 2024, with predrilling and completion of five wells. Now, eight wells have already been drilled, and the drilling of additional wells will continue on the field until the end of 2025, Equinor said.
Breidablikk is being developed with 22 subsea wells drilled from four templates. Pipelines and cables have been installed between the subsea facility and the Grane platform, which has been modified to receive the well stream.
The Breidablikk field in the North Sea and the Grane platform. (Credit: Equinor)
"The project has had major ripple effects in Norway. More than 90 percent of the contract value has gone to suppliers with a Norwegian billing address. The main suppliers are Odfjell Drilling in Bergen, Aker Solutions, with large deliveries from Egersund, Wood Group in Sandefjord, and TechnipFMC, from their spoolbase in Orkanger," Equinor added.
Investments in the project are expected to be just over NOK 21 billion in 2023 value (currently around ~$1,9 billion).
"Breidablikk can help to extend the productive life and the approximately 1000 jobs associated with the operation of the Grane field towards 2060. By utilizing existing infrastructure both offshore and onshore, this is a cost-effective development. At peak, Breidablikk is expected to send up to 55-60,000 barrels of oil to the market daily, mainly to Europe," says Kjetil Hove, Equinor's executive vice president for Exploration and Production Norway.
The oil from Breidablikk is processed on Grane and sent ashore by pipeline to the Sture terminal in Øygarden. Oil will account for about 15 percent of exports from Sture in the years to come. The new field will be operated together with the Grane field by the Equinor organization at Sandsli in Bergen.
Breidablikk is expected to produce at plateau level in the period 2024 to 2026. Plateau production is estimated at gross 55-60,000 kboepd.
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