E&P challenges in NCS oil fields
Uncertain exploration success
Of course any exploration activity is full of uncertainty, and only in recent years with the development of new exploration models are operators able to gain a fuller understanding of what lies beneath the NCS. The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate claims almost a quarter of reserves are left unfound but a major exploration effort will need to be undertaken to discover these reserves, more information available here.
Subsea maintenance challenges
Statoil’s subsea pipelines criss-cross the Norwegian Continental Shelf for many thousands of miles. Therefore, the organisation needs a robust maintenance regime in place to deal with every eventuality. Åse Margrethe Odland, VP of Statoil’s Transportnet division, explains how she keeps the system flowing. Reported Offshoretechnology.com
Åse Margrethe Odland: “Repairing subsea pipelines might be challenging, but Statoil has built up an extensive contingency preparedness for such pipelines. Different methods are developed depending on water depths and pipeline dimension. For repairs beyond diving depth, remote-operated equipment is used.”
More information can be found here
Optimising recovery from existing fields
A major challenge for operators in the UKCS, and one that their NCS counterparts are also facing. All operators want to optimize recovery from their existing fields but the real questions is how to do this? What strategy and technology should be used? Whether you opt for air injection eor, chemical eor or are more ambitious (think Statoil’s subsea gas compression project in the Aasgard field) .. there is still great debate around the best method of optimizing oil and gas recovery
Do you agree? What challenges are you facing in the NCS?
If you found this interesting you might also be interested in how Wintershall are adding value from their North Sea portfolio, presentation available to download here
To find out more about this and more please see the Oil & Gas Outlook North Sea conference at: www.terrapinn.com/northsea
