Equinor and its partners Petoro, Vår Energi and ConocoPhillips Skandinavia are moving forward with its Breidablikk development in the North Sea. The partnership said it will submit a plan for development and operation to Norway’s Minister of Petroleum and Energy.
Breidablikk is a large oil discovery on the Norwegian Continental Shelf located north-east of the Grane field in the North Sea. Expected production from the field is about 200 million bbl with investments totaling about $2 billion.
Breidablikk will be developed as a subsea field with a tieback to the Grane platform. Production from Grane will be monitored with digital tools from Equinor's integrated operations center (IOC) at Sandsli, Norway.
Equinor also announced two contracts worth for subsea facilities and upgrading of the Grane platform worth nearly $350 million.
The company awarded engineering firm Aker Solutions a $264-million contract, including options, for the delivery of a subsea production system for the development. Aker’s contract covers the delivery of four subsea templates and up to 23 subsea trees and associated components. The deliveries include lightweight vertical subsea trees and Aker’s Vectus subsea control system with data and power capabilities.
Wood was awarded an $84-million engineering, procurement, construction, installation (EPCI) contract for the development following successful delivery of the front-end engineering design (FEED) study, which was awarded with the EPCI scope option in 2019.
Wood will deliver all topside modifications at Equinor’s Grane installation in preparation for the tieback of the subsea development. Modifications include the integration of new pipelines and an umbilical and increased produced-water capacity at the facility.
Preparatory tie-in modifications at the Grane installation will be completed in the first half of 2024.
Earlier in the year, TechnipFMC won a contract for pipelaying in the project with options for subsea installation
Equinor said all not all contracts have not been awarded, but about 70% of the value creation in the development phase is expected to go to Norwegian companies. The contracts are subject to government approval of the plan for development and operation.
The project development is subject to final approval by the Norwegian authorities.