Neptune Energy and its partners have launched the drilling campaign on the Fenja field in the Norwegian Shelf as part of the NOK10.2bn ($980m) field development project by spudding the first well.
Fenja marks the first operated development project on the Norwegian Shelf for Neptune Energy. The offshore Norwegian field, which is contained in a water depth of 320m, is estimated to hold 97 million barrels oil equivalent (boe).
At plateau, Neptune Energy expects the Fenja field will yield nearly 40 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (kboepd).
Six wells will be drilled as part of the Fenja field development
Discovered in 2014, the offshore field will be developed via two subsea templates with a total of six wells tied-back to the Njord A floating production facility.
Neptune Energy and its partners will be drilling three oil producers, two water injectors and one gas injector as part of the field development. The company intends to convert the gas injector to a gas producer towards the end of field life.
According to the company, the Fenja drilling campaign has been modified to address delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic with the licence partners deciding to execute drilling in three phases over the next two years. Neptune Energy said that the revised plan also offers greater flexibility to respond to subsurface insights gained from the geo-pilots, and the prevailing challenging market conditions.
The drilling campaign for this year, which is being undertaken by the West Phoenix drilling rig, operated by Seadrill, includes two top holes and two geopilots, which would take an estimated duration of 85 days.
The company expects to bring the Fenja field into production by the fourth quarter of 2021.
Neptune Energy Norway projects and engineering director Erik Oppedal said: “Sunday’s drilling start-up represents an important milestone in the project. The aim of these first geo-pilots is to gain a better understanding of the reservoir and to optimize the location of the production wells.
“As our first operated development in the Norwegian North Sea, Fenja is an exciting project for Neptune and underlines the importance of the region to our geographically-diverse business.”
The partners of Neptune Energy (30%) in the Fenja field are Vår Energi (45%), Suncor (17.5%) and DNO (7.5%).
