Ready for 40 more years
The major development projects in the Greater Ekofisk Area are nearly complete – what remains is a comprehensive drilling program to recover more of the resources in the subsurface. Work is also ongoing on finding more legs to stand on – the ambition is a new operated field on the Norwegian shelf.
‘Our stated ambition is to grow in Norway, which mainly means exploration, development of discoveries and improved recovery from existing fields,’ says Steinar Våge, President Europe.Renewed infrastructure
The infrastructure that is essential to bring the fields into the future, is now in place. The Ekofisk Complex has received its accommodation and field center, its wellhead platform Ekofisk 2/4 Z and its subsea installations Ekofisk 2/4 VA and 2/4 VB. The Eldfisk Complex is being completed with Eldfisk 2/7 S, an integrated platform with a wellhead and process facility, as well as accommodation module, while the existing complex is being rebuilt and modified.
Old platforms have been removed in parallel with the new construction, and a number of shut down platforms have been brought to shore and dismantled over the last five years.
The new infrastructure above and below water is a precondition for recovering more from the reservoirs. New wells will be drilled in upcoming years. Ekofisk has been producing since 1971, Eldfisk since 1979, and the fields’ lifetimes have been extended by many decades.
Hectic crilling activity
‘Now we will drill wells to recover more from the resources and maintain production from the fields,’ says Våge.
Over the next few years, we plan to drill 32 new wells on Ekofisk 2/4 Z and 35 wells on Eldfisk 2/7 S, in addition to continuous drilling and well work on the other platforms.
Many rigs
2014 is a busy year. Drilling and well activities are being carried out with no less than two fixed drilling rigs and five mobile rigs. At the same time, four to six well interventions are carried out each day, using coiled tubing, wireline operations and stimulation by special vessels.
In early summer, the brand new jack-up rig West Linus arrived at the Ekofisk Complex. The rig is on a five-year contract and is scheduled to drill 32 wells on the Ekofisk 2/4 Z wellhead platform – 31 production wells and one well for reinjection of cuttings.
On Eldfisk 2/7 S the Mærsk Gallant has completed the pre-drilling of five wells. The Mærsk Innovator will commence the drilling of the remaining 35 wells on the platform in the autumn. This work will take several years.
On the Ekofisk 2/4 M platform, the Rowan Norway will re-drill seven wells. The M platform has been in operation since 2005 and has a total of 30 wells.
At the same time as the company invests in new wells, work is under way to shut down and secure wells on platforms that have closed. Before the installations can be removed, the wells must be permanently plugged. This year, the Rowan Gorilla VI rig will plug more than 20 wells on Ekofisk 2/4 A.
More water injection
The drilling of eight wells on the subsea facility Ekofisk 2/4 VB was recently completed. ConocoPhillips now has two such facilities on the seabed with a total of 16 water injection wells, providing solid contributions to the water injection in the Ekofisk reservoir. ConocoPhillips has since 1985 conducted water injection to contribute to increased recovery. More than 500,000 barrels of water are pumped into the ground each day.