Green Light for Ivar Aasen
Monday 24 October 2016
AkerBP has been given the green light from the authorities for start-up of its under-development Ivar Aasen field project off Norway that is on track for December.
The North Sea field will be exploited using a production platform sitting in a water depth of 110 metres at an estimated cost of Nkr26.9 billion ($3.27 billion), in line with the original budget estimate, according to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), which granted the consent.
The Norwegian operator, formerly named Det Norske, has defied earlier fears of project cost overruns and delays following its decision to build the platform topsides and jacket at Singapore yard SMOE and Italy’s Saipem, respectively.
“The NPD is very satisfied that both the schedule and budget are on target,” said the NPD’s assistant director for development and operation, Tove Francke.
It will mark the first standalone field that AkerBP has brought from discovery to development.
The field is estimated to hold 204 million barrels of oil equivalent in proven and probable reserves, with plateau output seen at around 67,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Reserves from the nearby Hanz find will also be phased in once capacity becomes available on the Ivar Aasen platform.
Oil and gas produced from Ivar Aasen will be transported to Lundin Petroleum’s nearby Edvard Grieg platform for final processing, with the latter facility also supplying it with power until an area-wide electrification solution in is place for fields in the Utsira High area.