Snorre Expansion Project in Norway begins production

The Snorre Expansion Project has come on stream in the Norwegian North Sea.

The project is designed to add almost 200 million barrels of reserves and extend the lifetime of the Snorre field to 2040. Wintershall Dea has an 8.57% share in the Equinor-operated project.

“This was one of the most ambitious increased oil recovery projects in the history of the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The fact that the partnership has managed to bring the project into production early, with no cost overruns, is testament to the outstanding project management throughout. Congratulations to Equinor, our partners, and the whole supply chain for delivering safely and efficiently in extremely difficult times,” said Synnøve Helland, Wintershall Dea Norge Vice President for Non-Operated Assets.

Completed despite the Covid-19 disruptions, with supply lines stretched and the availability of personnel severely restricted, the project team managed to install six new templates, and deliver significant modifications and upgrades to the Snorre A platform.

In total, 24 new wells will be drilled over the next few years, at a depth of 300-380 metres, delivering new volumes as they are brought into production. Five of the new wells are already in operation. The project plan was handed to Norwegian authorities in December 2017.

Located in the resource-rich Tampen area of the Norwegian North Sea, the Snorre field continued to produce throughout project execution. As one of the giants of the North Sea, the field has already delivered some 1.4 billion barrels of oil but had originally been planned to produce only until the beginning of the last decade.

With the expansion project, the plan is now for Snorre to continue producing until 2040. Within the next couple of years, the field will also benefit from renewable power delivered from the world’s first floating wind farm, Hywind Tampen, which is currently under development. Wintershall Dea is a shareholder in the Hywind Tampen project.

Equinor Energy is operator of the Snorre field with 33.27%. The other partners are Wintershall Dea (8.57%), Petoro (30%), Vår Energi (18.55%) and Idemitsu Petroleum Norge (9.6%).