Equinor and its partners will proceed with the NOK 1.4-billion Åsgard B low-pressure project in the Norwegian Sea. The partners, which include Petoro AS, Vår Energi AS, and Total E&P Norge AS, awarded a NOK 800-million engineering, procurement, construction, and installation contract to Aker Solutions to conduct the work.
The contractor scooped the front-end engineering and design work for the project back in December 2019. The selected concept is a modification of the platform to reduce inlet pressure by replacing the reinjection compressors and rebuilding parts of the processing facility.
“We’re pleased that the Åsgard owners have given their go-ahead for the low-pressure project,” said Geir Tungesvik, Equinor’s senior vice president for projects. “The project will increase production from the current Smørbukk wells and contribute to achieve planned production from the field. We’re also awarding a contract to Aker Solutions which will provide valuable activity and help maintain jobs in a difficult time.”
The Åsgard field in the Norwegian Sea started producing in 1999 and the transition to low-pressure production is key to securing improved recovery from the field. Equinor believes it can still produce 400–500 million BOE from the field.
“The current recovery rate for the field is almost 50%, but our ambition is to extract 60% of the hydrocarbons in the reservoirs before the field will have to be shut down,” said Randi Hugdahl, vice president for Åsgard operations.
The Aker contract represent about 415 work-years and distributed over 4 years for the supplier. The work will start immediately and is planned to continue through 2024.
More than 20 years have passed since the Åsgard B gas-processing platform came on stream. Overall, the installations at Åsgard have delivered more than 2.8 billion BOE, with a gross value of more than NOK 1,000 billion.
Planned startup of low-pressure production is in 2023.