Equinor Awards Contracts for Norway Tiebacks
Equinor ASA and its partners have signed contracts worth around NOK 6 billion ($613.39 million) for four tieback projects in different stages of development offshore Norway.
Brime, Omega Sør, TWIN and Tyrihans Nord are expected to produce 130-220 million barrels of oil equivalent. Only TWIN has been sanctioned by the owners, majority state-owned Equinor said in a press release Tuesday.
The awards "are part of the first of several planned subsea development waves, in which contracts are being coordinated to increase pace and reduce costs for subsea developments on the Norwegian continental shelf", the company said.
"We envisage around 75 subsea developments towards 2035", said Gunnar Nakken, Equinor senior vice president for projects and subsea on the Norwegian continental shelf. "To realize these resources, we need to develop smaller discoveries faster and at a lower cost than today.
"This requires significant changes in how we plan and execute subsea projects. Our ambition is to halve both costs and execution time through simpler processes and standardized solutions together with our partners and suppliers".
TWIN, the biggest investment among the four projects at NOK 4 billion, is the third step in the phased development of the Troll West gas cap. TWIN stands for "Troll West Increased gas recovery North". Equinor is operator with a 30.55 percent stake. Its partners are government-owned Petoro AS (30 percent), Edinburgh-based Harbour Energy PLC (24.5 percent), Tokyo-based INPEX Corp (9.6 percent) and Stavanger-based Vår Energi ASA (4.9 percent).
Brime is planned to be tied back to Gullfaks C via the existing Visund Sør template, and would provide the basis for a potential phased development of two sidetrack wells, Equinor said. Equinor operates Brime with a 74.66 percent stake. Petoro owns 25.34 percent.
Omega Sør would be connected to Snorre A. Equinor has a 31 percent operating stake in Omega Sør. Petoro holds 30 percent, Harbour 24.5 percent, INPEX 9.6 percent and Vår Energi 4.9 percent.
Tyrihans Nord is planned to be tied back to Kristin. Equinor operates Tyrihans Nord with a 36.32 percent stake. French energy giant TotalEnergies SE owns 23.15 percent, Petoro 22.52 percent and Vår Energi 18.02 percent.
TechnipFMC PLC will deliver subsea production systems for all four projects and install rigid pipelines on the Troll field. Tenaris SA will supply the pipes.
OneSubsea - a joint venture of SLB Ltd, Aker Solutions ASA and Subsea7 SA - will deliver the production system for TWIN and umbilicals for all four projects.
Ocean Installer Ltd will install and connect the projects' subsea facilities, control cables and flexible pipelines, as well as oversee marine operations.
NOV has been contracted to deliver flexible pipelines for all four projects.
"This is equipment with long lead times, so we need to invest early if we are to halve the time from discovery to production", said Nakken. "We order standard equipment that can be used by later projects if one of the projects in the first wave is not sanctioned by the partnership or approved by the authorities".
Equinor chief procurement officer Jannicke Nilsson said, "We are strengthening competition and predictability and giving suppliers the opportunity to deliver on several projects at the same time. It is essential to reduce costs, and the response from the industry confirms significant improvement potential. We will now scale this collaboration to make marginal discoveries profitable and maintain activity levels on the Norwegian continental shelf".
To contact the author, email jov.onsat@rigzone.com
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