Repsol Eyes Revised PDO for Yme
Thursday 13 July 2017
Repsol is moving forward with redevelopment of the Yme field off Norway by adopting a concept hatched by partner Okea under a development plan due to be submitted to the authorities this autumn.
The proposed project involving a converted jack-up rig with processing topsides has been up in the air after Okea failed to finalise a transition deal with Repsol to take over operatorship of the ill-fated North Sea field.
The Spanish operator was earlier this year given more time to file a decommissioning plan for Yme as it considered options to redevelop the field after an earlier abortive project led by Talisman Energy, now owned by Repsol, foundered due to myriad technical issues with a newbuild production unit that has now been scrapped without ever producing a drop of oil.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) confirmed in an update on Thursday that Repsol and its partners plan to submit a revised plan for development and operation of the field in the autumn of 2017.
“The plan is to use a jack-up facility equipped with drilling and process systems to produce the remaining resources in Yme,” the agency stated.
Okea was originally intending to submit a PDO by the end of last year, targeting first oil in 2019, after bids were received last autumn for the converted jack-up production facility, with Maersk Drilling’s unit Maersk Inspirer seen as a potential candidate.
The plan would also entail re-use of existing subsea infrastructure and production wells already drilled at Yme.
Repsol holds a 60% operating stake in production licence 316 that hosts Yme, with partners Lotos E&P (20%) and Okea and Kufpec, on 10% apiece.
The PDO is among five additional field development plans due to be filed with the authorities by year-end involving total investments of at least Nkr85.5 billion ($10.3 billion).
Statoil is looking to submit plans for its Nkr49 billion Johan Castberg project in the Barents Sea and Nkr24 billion Snorre Expansion scheme in the North Sea, according to the NPD.
In addition, Aker BP aims to develop the Snadd gas field and VNG will deliver its plan for the Pil & Bue discoveries, with investments in the Norwegian Sea projects estimated at Nkr10.8 billion and Nkr1.7 billion, respectively.
Norway is seeing a resurgence in field development activity after earlier cutbacks due to low oil prices as operators such as Statoil have reduced costs to lower the commercial threshold for new projects.
Petroleum & Energy Minister Terje Soviknes said recently the government is set to receive 10 development plans this year - double the tally of five submitted in 2016.
The number of projects due to land on the minister’s desk is set to quadruple the value of investments in new Norwegian fields this year compared with Nkr25.4 billion last year.
Six PDOs have already been approved by the authorities this year for the Statoil-operated Utgard, Byrding, Trestakk and Bauge fields, Centrica’s Oda and Dea-operated Dvalin for total investments of Nkr27.7 billion.
Statoil has also gained approval for its Njord Future redevelopment plan entailing investments of Nkr15 billion while it has also filed a plan to develop its Snefrid Nord gas discovery at a cost of around Nkr1.2 billion.