New phases of the Sleipner West field development boost reserves and help keep production at plateau level
The Sleipner West field has over the last months gone through an extensive maintenance and upgrading program, which has resulted in increased reserves and prolonged plateau production by three years. This has been made possible by the Sleipner West compression project as well as the Alpha North satellite project, representing phases two and three of the field development.
The Sleipner T treatment platform, which is located on Sleipner East and is tied to the A installation by a bridge, has been converted to deal with declining reservoir pressure.
That will help keep Sleipner West’s daily gas production at its plateau level of 22 million cubic meters for another three years. It has also boosted recoverable reserves in the field by 45 billion cubic meters of gas and 88 million barrels of condensate (light oil).
Furthermore, the Alpha North gas and condensate (light oil) structure on the Sleipner West field in the North Sea began production on 11 October, just over 24 months after the project was sanctioned. This development has been brought on stream with one subsea template and four wells. The seabed facility stands about 18 kilometers north-west of the Sleipner platforms. A 16-inch pipeline transfers the wellstream to the Sleipner T gas treatment installation on Sleipner East for processing. Recoverable reserves in the satellite structure are put at about 13 billion cubic meters of gas and some 32 million barrels of condensate.
The Sleipner Alpha North development was delivered on time and at a cost of roughly NOK 2.3 billion, NOK 750 million below the original estimate. The Sleipner West compression project included modification of the existing structure instead of building a new compressor platform – thereby cutting NOK 2.5 billion from the cost to the license.
- We are very pleased with the improvements and upgrades made at Sleipner West which have contributed to boosting reserves and maintaining a high production level at Sleipner. We are also satisfied that we and the other licensees together with the operator Statoil have executed an overall Sleipner project more cost-effectively than originally specified in the plan for development and operation, says Morten Mauritzen, ExxonMobil’s Joint Interest Manager.
Licensees on Sleipner West are Statoil, with a 49.5 per cent holding, ExxonMobil with 32.34 per cent, Total with 9.41 per cent and Norsk Hydro with 8.85 per cent.
ExxonMobil is the fourth largest oil and gas producer on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, having equity in around 20 gas and oil fields in production, and about 10 % interest in Norwegian infrastructure for gas transportation and treatment. The company is the largest international investor on the Norwegian shelf and operates the Balder, Jotun, Ringhorne, and Sigyn fields. The production in 2003 was about 390,000 barrels oil equivalents per day – which is equivalent to about 9% of the total Norwegian production.
